Dragon Hunt
by CII
Summary: SG1 has faced formidable enemies in the past. But none so dangerous, or mysterious, than the foes they never knew existed right in their own backyard or their own home planet for that matter.  Alternate Universe! cowritten by Count Boobu. Complete
1. STARGATE COMMAND  July, 1999

**STARGATE COMMAND - July, 1999**

"Receiving SG-1's transponder code."

"Open the iris."

And so it was done. The reflective circular metal contraption retracted to its original state so that the incoming travelers, the SG-1 team, would be able to pass through safely. They emerged from the shimmering, aqua-like, wormhole only seconds later, looking like they had just gotten through the fight of their lives.

Jack and Samantha had come through first and both instinctually reached out to grab the side rails connected to the ramp. In what seemed like a fit of comedic timing, they both exhaled sighs of weariness and let their heads drop. Daniel and Teal'c reacted similarly, the former allowing himself to set down on the ramp itself and the latter gazing back to the gate, thankful that he had made it through in one piece.

In the upper room chamber overlooking the gate room, General Hammond couldn't help but to raise an eyebrow at the scene. He reached over to the to the PA system just as the gate's wormhole disengaged.

"SG-1", the General called out, "What's the situation?"

Jack lifted up his head first. "Nothing, sir, the mission went off spectacularly", he replied with a groan, "Just...there's no place like home."

The General exchanged skeptical glances with the other technicians around him.

"Quite", Hammond acknowledged, "Report for a debriefing in one hour."

The contingent of soldiers, as well as other technicians and analysts, then began to filter out of the room in their normal routine fashion. Jack, Sam, Daniel, and Teal'c, however, felt anything but normal or routine.

"Sir," Samantha asked of Jack as the activities quieted down, "Did we really just do all of that?"

"Don't know," Jack quipped, "Maybe Daniel knows?"

Daniel lifted his head, surprised at the comments. "Why are you guys asking me? You're the ones that did it."

"Indeed," Teal'c said, "Daniel Jackson and I were on the sidelines, watching with keen interest."

"Eh, keen? No. Interest? Definitely," Daniel corrected.

"Look", Jack said while throwing his arms up, "I think we can all agree, that that was a little on the embarrassing side. Now we have to find a way to tell the General that..."

"Sir!" Samantha quickly cut in, "Maybe we should talk about this away from everyone else?"

"That the Major and I had to participate in a potato sack race, in the dripping rain and mud, just to keep two very hostile peoples from killing each other!"

The SG-1 team had gathered away from prying eyes in Jack's quarters. Save for Teal'c, the rest of the team had been having a bit of a hard time trying to wrap their heads around the earlier events. How could something so serious have turned into something so...absurd?

Daniel snapped his fingers. "Oh, not to mention while stripped down to your..."

The expressions on Jack and Sam's faces were enough to shut Daniel up.

"Well, Daniel, since you seem to remember everything so clearly, I elect that you deliver the report to General Hammond," Jack said with a smirk.

"And how I am suppose to do that when I wasn't there to do any of the negotiating?" Daniel asked matter of fact. "One way or another, you guys are going to have to talk."

Jack and Sam knew they were beat, at least on that point. But Jack wasn't one to give up on a fight, even if it seemed hopeless.

"Oh sure, we'll have to say a word here and there," Jack explained, "But I'm sure you and Teal'c can get most of the particulars down. Right, Teal'c?"

The proud Jaffa warrior had not been paying attention to the current bickering. His sharp eyes gazed elsewhere, searching.

"Teal'c?" Samantha asked.

"Something's not right," Teal'c announced, and then looked at his friends as he added, "Can you not feel it?"

It was true. There was something wrong about...something. No one could put their exact finger on it, but as soon as Teal'c had mentioned it, it seemed like everyone else immediately became in tune with this increasing feeling of dread. No, it was worse than that. And the feeling itself magnified with each passing moment.

Daniel had never felt anything like this before. To him, it was almost painful. He doubled over and sank to his knees.

"Guys, uh, what's going on?" Daniel asked with an obvious fearful pitch to his voice.

Samantha reached out to support Daniel, but she too suffered the ill effects of...whatever this was. It reminded her of era in her life when she first faced live combat. No amount of training in the world had prepared her for that first day as a pilot, and the same proved true here.

Jack and Teal'c were no less affected, but managed to keep most of their composure. It took a lot for them just to keep standing, not to mention think of what to do next.

"Carter, Jackson, you stay here," Jack commanded, and then gestured to Teal'c, "Teal'c, with me!"

As the two soldiers ran down the halls of Stargate Command, they saw chaos breaking out in every corner. Battle hardened veterans, as well as those who had never seen real combat, cowered in the corners and generally reacted from some unseen terror. This combined with the base's klaxon system blaring over the loud speakers all mixed together for an environment of unparalleled pandemonium.

Jack and Teal'c found General Hammond in the armory, which was their first stop.

"Colonel!" Hammond cried out, "What the hell is going on around here? One minute everyone's fine, the next they're just..."

The General's words trailed off as he failed to find the appropriate explanation to summarize everything. Jack was just as easily stumped, and did the only thing he knew how to do in a hostile situation.

He reached for a P-90 Assault Rifle and jammed a full round into its unloaded chamber.

"General, we obviously have an intruder!" Jack finally replied, "We're gonna head to the Gate Room. Can you stand?"

Hammond nodded an affirmation. He too grabbed for a weapon, a Zat Gun. Teal'c followed suit by brandishing his weapon of choice, the Staff Weapon. All three men signaled that they were ready and cautiously made their way to the gate room.

The halls were still filled with terrified people, military and otherwise. It was a great exercise in self control not to simply shoot at anything that moved. This dreadful feeling, whatever it was, fed into the instinctual human perception of fight or flight. All three men knew that they would fight...it was just damn hard to keep going at this point.

Teal'c motioned for the trio to halt, and they did so unquestioningly. They each searched frantically for the presence that caused all of this chaos to begin with. It was then that Hammond caught sight of something moving on the ceiling. It was camouflaged, whatever it was, for it easily blended in with the surrounding area. But the quick snapping of some appendage, a tail of some sort, immediately alerted the General to its visual presence.

"Above at 12'o'clock!" General Hammond commanded.

Teal'c, Jack, and Hammond aimed and fired. Projectiles and energy alike struck at and around their target. The creature scurried away, only letting out an annoyed, beastly, grunt. The trio dashed after it as fast as their legs would carry them.

Their legs carried them into the gate room, where it seemed that they lost track of their target. Jack motioned for Teal'c and Hammond to take up strategic points at two other sides of the room. They followed the order and took up cover where they could. Even so, not one of them could spot even the tiniest hint of where the creature had gone.

The danger, though, had not passed. All three of them easily knew and felt that.

Teal'c's ears were the first to pick up on the rhythmic flapping that emanated from above the Stargate. Flapping...that meant the thing could...

Teal'c trained his staff weapon above the gate and let loose a barrage of shots. Each blast slammed into an invisible target, for not one bolt of energy hit into the wall behind the gate. Teal'c's marksmanship proved true, for in the next instant, the creature de-cloaked itself, and it looked far from being hurt.

All three men could not help but to widen their eyes. Surprise, shock, and disbelief colored their expressions as they faced down an enormous blue...dragon.Jack lowered his weapon for but a moment, long enough to realize that the sheer implausibility of the situation had become very plausible.

"Oh shi..."

The blue dragon seemed to smirk at Jack's expletive. And to add insult to injury, it ignored the three tiny men cowering before it and concentrated on the Stargate. It grasped the gate with one of its scaly claws and hefted the gate into the air with little effort, tearing the metallic ring from its riggings.

"Hey! Bad dragon!" Jack called out, "Put that back!"

The dragon turned an annoyed glare on Jack and bellowed a monstrous huff. Jack took several steps back in return. When his back collided against the gate room wall, he pointed a commanding finger at and gestured for the beast to set the gate down.

"Hey," Jack said in a warning tone, "I'm only gonna say this one last time. Put the..."

"Please," the dragon chuckled. "Don't make me laugh. Now, out of my way before I serve your tasty hide as a blue plate special with steak sauce."

As in fear as Jack was of the giant creature, even he had to pause for a moment and consider how he was just threatened.

"What?" Jack asked in a whisper.

The dragon paid him no more of its attention. It took both of its large hands and placed the 10 ton ring around its neck as if it were a hoola-hoop. And in an even more impressive display of its power, it soared into the air, crashing into the concrete roof above it as if it were air itself.Teal'c and General Hammond came out of their defensive positions afterward. Together, the three men stood staring, bewildered, at the now gaping hole in the ceiling that once enclosed the gate room.

"Teal'c..." Jack asked in disbelief, "Did we just get...gate-robbed?"

Teal'c blinked before replying. "Indeed."

0

Outside Cheyenne Mountain was as much pandemonium as there was inside. Reinforcements of armored vehicles, military personnel, and heavy artillery weapons placements stood outside ready and waiting for the opportunity to take down the invader.The wait, was not a long one.The blue dragon, with the Stargate around its necked, burst forth from the top of the mountain complex, several hundred feet above the military emplacements. All weapons were immediately trained on the beast and shot forth with all of the advanced power that human creation could muster.It turned out that human creation wasn't all that it was cracked up to be. Bullets and exploding shells served to further annoy the dragon, who did little more than roar above the terrible sound of the weapons fire. There was a small pause in the barrage. The blue dragon smirked again and knew that this was his chance to show the puny mortals before him a mere sample of the power he commanded.A bolt of electric energy shot down from the dragon's maw. It easily turned the asphalt that the soldiers stood on into evaporated dust. Bits of super heated tar flew everywhere, stinging the poor soldiers that were close enough to be standing nearest to the energy bolt, and shattering windows on the armored vehicles.The dragon determined that he had frightened his victims enough for one day. With but a few flaps of his giant wings, he soared high above to Cheyenne Mountain's summit. He removed the Stargate from around his neck and tossed it away, effortlessly, to the mountain's peak. The 10 ton ring spun in a Frisbee-like fashion before slamming onto the mountain's surface. The impact of which created small tremors that were easily felt by the scrambling humans below.With but a magical wave of the hand, the blue dragon activated all 9 chevrons on the gate's structure. A wormhole formed, which was visibly seen by all, including Samantha, who had just now reached the outside surface alongside of Daniel.They both watched as the dragon spun around, gracefully through the air, before landing inside the event horizon.Daniel scoffed at what he saw.

"That was..."

And then another impossible feat happened. The dragon reached its clawed hand back through the wormhole and somehow pulled the Stargate through the very portal that it opened. And with a flash of light, both the gate and the dragon were gone.

"...odd..." Daniel said, finishing his blatantly obvious sentence.

"Impossible is more like it," Sam yelled in frustration, "Come on, we've got to get back below."


	2. Three Days Before

**Three Days Before: Atlanta, Georgia**

He had been to this bar in south Atlanta before. It was called the _Emerald City_ and it certainly looked that way. Everything was green, green lights, green neon, green walls, green shag carpeting. Everyone dressed in green, including him. The rule about this club was that if anyone was not dressed in some shade of green, they were immediately dealt with by the bouncer outside. There were other rules as well, such as 'No magic no entrance' and 'mortals unwelcome'. This was a bar belonging to the underground world of magic beneath the city of Atlanta, Georgia. Magic, since the time of the Dark Ages, was hidden from the world of Mortals because of how Mortals viewed all things magic. Since the rise of the Roman Catholic Church, magic was viewed more and more as evil and such practices and creatures were slaughtered because of it. Even dragonslaying was becoming more widespread until only a handful of dragons existed. But those dragons were only animals no more intelligent than a hungry alligator and no larger than a school bus. They paled in comparison to him.

"I need another one," he groaned, his voice clearly held a distinct Australian accent. The bartender nodded and poured another drink.

The air inside the club was not of his tastes. Smoke clouds accumulated and cling to the ceiling and gathered in corners. He could smell various other scents too of questionable origins. He stared at the glass in his hand, swirling around the melting ice. All he had was a shot of rum. His bartender was an overworked and underpaid Dwarf college student. Right beside him was a 3-foot tall pixie dressed in a light green sweater and blue jeans, her gossamer wings folded over her back and her bouncy, fiery red, curly hair tied into a topknot with a green bow. She had a trench coat swung over the back of her bar stool—a way to conceal her wings when she went outside the bar. He heard a hiss and a rattle behind him and he glanced over his shoulder to find a naga slithering by. Behind him sitting on a couch was a Troll talking to a Drow elf—who herald from his planet—a planet where magic was more welcomed than here. Magical creatures from various worlds came here to visit, traveling through the various magical gates and portals locked away from mortal eyes. Which is how he got here as well. But the reason why he chose to stay was not because of the thrill of watching college football from a wide screen TV. Rather, it was because he was in love with a mortal. He loved, as any living creature would, loved a mortal, shared his secret to her—which she accepted—married her—and then…watched her die of leukemia nearly 9 years later. Not even the magic of an Ascended Great Wyrm Blue Dragon could hold back the bony hands of Death. The memory of his wife dying sent a bitter chill down his back again. Though, he did have something to remember her by—a child, his niece named Melissa. Melissa was all that he had left from Kirsten. And that was why he was at the bar tonight, his thoughts drawing him back to just yesterday.

"_Watch me, Uncle Skie!" Melissa called. "Watch me!"_

_Skie sat back on the wooden bench with a camcorder in his hands, waving at his 7-year old niece and adopted daughter swing higher and higher on the swing set in the park._

"_Be careful, darling!" he warned. "Don't swing too high, now. I don't want you falling off and hurting yourself."_

_He grinned from ear to ear when he heard her joyful giggles. Her laughter was his only means for happiness. Then, Melissa leapt out of her seat and came plummeting towards the sand that covered the area of the swing. Skie gasped and threw down the camera, lunging out of his bench, flinging himself to the ground with arms spread. She landed in his arms, taking hold of his neck, gasping for air and laughing. It was like she had no fear in her heart. She was so much like Kirsten. She had the heart of a dragon. She was tough, but Skie was protective of her despite that toughness._

_Melissa!" he called. "Don't do that again. You could have broken something."_

"_I'm alright, Uncle Skie," she said, tapping him on the bridge of his nose. "And you were there to catch me."_

"_Someday, I'll not always be here to catch you," Skie breathed, setting her down as he lifted up. He dusted the sand off his jeans and his navy blue jacket. "Let's do something a bit more safe, eh? How about the carousel?"_

"_Okay," said Melissa. "Only if you push me."_

_Skie gave a deep chuckle and gathered up the camcorder into his pocket. Melissa took his hand and they started off towards the carousel. Skie glanced down, noticing how she was skipping merrily along beside him, her dusty blonde curls bouncing around her shoulders. She was happy and that was all that mattered to him. Ever since Kirsten died, Skie made it his priority to keep Melissa happy, but not spoil her. She was his world and she was worth more than any dragon's hoard. He did not care whether or not she was mortal; she was his everything—just like Kirsten was. Melissa hopped onto the carousel and Skie took hold of the handles._

"_You ready?" he asked._

"_Yeah!" she called._

"_Now, you tell me if you start to feel sick or something…right?" he asked._

"_Uncle Skie…" Melissa sighed._

"_I want to make sure," Skie said._

"_Bobby Johnson said that getting sick on the carousel was the best part," Melissa grinned sheepishly._

"_Well!" Skie snorted. "We'll pay no mind to what Bobby Johnson says…"_

"_Aunt Kirsten was right," Melissa wrinkled her nose at him. "You are a grumpy, old dragon."_

"_I may be an old dragon," Skie said, creeping closer to her. "But I'm certainly not grumpy."_

_Melissa giggled again as he poked her playfully in the stomach._

"_Push me!" Melissa called._

"_Here we go!" Skie replied as he grabbed the handle and gave it a good push. Melissa laid down on the carousel, looking up and watching the world spin into a gradated blur above her._

"_Okay, let go, I'm gonna push myself!" Melissa called. "You push too hard."_

"_I told you to tell me if you get sick," said Skie._

"_I know," Melissa nodded as she slid off. Skie backed away and sat down again on another bench. He got out his camcorder once more and turned it on, filming his niece spinning around, waving as she made her turn to him. He could not help but to wave back. Then, other people began to walk around the carousel, taking their children to different parts of the park. Skie leaned over to see if he could get a better view of Melissa, standing up from his seat. He heard her laugh but the sound itself seemed muted and far away. Her voice was slowly being drowned out by other sounds. Though his keen ears had the ability to distinguish between one sound another and isolate that sound, for some reason that was not working for him. Skie's smile faded when he began to hear a ringing sound become louder and louder and he looked back to see a women standing between him and his nieces._

"_Excuse me, you're in my way, ma'am," he sharply informed. Skie felt his parental instincts kick in and he started to worry about Melissa now that she was not within eye sight._

"_Sorry," she said as she moved away. Skie sighed as soon as the carousel was in view again. He blinked and his teeth clinched tightly. Melissa was gone._

"_No…" Skie gasped. "Uh…ma'am, did you see a little girl with blonde curls on that ride?"_

"_Sir?" she asked._

"_Little girl with blonde curls and a hot pink parka on that carousel over there…"_

"_Sorry, I didn't see anything," she shrugged. "But I'll be happy to keep my eye out for her."_

"_Thank you!" Skie nodded as he began to run, tucking the camcorder in his pocket again. "Melissa! Darling! Melissa!"_

_He ran passed the swing, passed the sea-saw and passed the metallic slide. His eyes picked up movement going into the green belt beyond the park itself and he heard a faint sound of a girl cry echo through the trees._

"_I'm coming!" Skie called as he raced after the sound. Just as he was about to dive into the forest, his face slammed into something flat and invisible. Skie fell back onto his spine, the camcorder tumbling out of his pocket. He reached for it and clutched it tightly as if it held the very last memories he would ever have of his dear niece. Rising up, he felt in front of him, his hand coming in contact with something smooth. It had no taste, no scent, but it was something that was keeping him from his Melissa. A magical barrier. Skie growled and the sky itself echoed his anger with a clap of thunder. He lunged for the barrier and slammed his fists against it, hearing his fists clang against its surface. Skie growled again and the thunder echoed through the sky as dark, angry clouds rolled in. The wind began to pick up around the park and parents and kids swiftly made for their cars and vans and trucks. The storm did not, however, chase Skie away. Skie placed his hands on the barrier and began to whisper softly to himself. His hands glowed and the barrier fluctuated in front of him. With a roar, Skie broke the barrier and it shattered like glass around him. Angered filled his stomach as he dispelled the spell that kept his human form and his shape stretched out, growing higher and higher above the trees in front of him. Wings that could encompass _Turner Fields_ spread wide as the massive, sapphire, draconic form took to the stormy skies. Skie Khellendros had begun his feverish search for his niece…_

_That was a day ago…_Skie sighed as he stared down at his glass. His hand slowly came down to an object in his pocket—his camcorder with the remaining last moments he had with his precious Melissa. When the night came after that day, Skie received a call that told him to come here to this bar and meet with the one who stole his niece. Skie's lip pulled back into a snarl as he thought of what he would do to the foolish 'two-legs' who dared steal his beloved Melissa. He knew that once he got the information as to where Melissa was held, he would devour whoever it was that took her. He would be more than satisfied with digesting the kidnapper. His brilliant blue eyes sparkled with anticipation to meet with this person.

"Khellendros the Blue…" began a gurgling, snorting, British-accented voice behind him. Skie did not even look back.

"It's Skie to you lesser folk," Skie snorted.

"Whatever…"

Skie growled, swinging around, his eyes meeting with the dull and less than intelligent, gold eyes of a hobgoblin. He reached down and grabbed the green, slimy creature by the neck and pulled him closer.

"Don't ever dismiss me, you pathetic, little worm," Skie growled. "Such idiocy will see you become a permanent resident in my belly."

"If rumors are true," the hobgoblin sniffled. "You've gone soft. The—great and powerful Khellendros, the Storm of the Northern Wastes of Oererth, son of Electrius—High Chancellor of Wyrms—nothing more than a sniveling, worry-about, weeping over the loss of his mortal wife and now—the loss of his mortal niece. Your time in the mortal world has made you weak."

The hobgoblin let out a yelp as a blue-white lightning bolt was sent streaking towards him. He ducked under a bar table as the bolt exploded the TV-set behind him. The Troll that was watching the Braves game rose up from his seat and bellowed back at Skie.

"The Braves were ahead in the 6th!" he bellowed. "And you had to blow up the only TV set with satellite broadcast of the game, you blue salamander!"

"I'm surprise there are Braves fans in this joint," Skie grinned sheepishly as the Troll stomped towards him, rearing a fist back. "But I'm sorry; I don't have time for this…"

The Troll thrust his fist towards Skie's face just as Skie raised his hand and flicked his finger. Despite the fact he was in human form, all of his draconic strength was still there and one flick on the Troll's nose was enough to send the Troll flying back towards the wall.

"Anyone else want to complain about the TV set being broken?" Skie bellowed to the other customers. Everyone else who had their heads up looking at Skie, now shifted them back down, trying to pretend they were minding their own business. Skie knelt down and flipped the bar table over, grabbing the hobgoblin by the throat again. "Alright, state your business…"

"My—master sent me," the hobgoblin sniveled. "He has your niece."

"Where?" Skie asked.

"Outside," he replied. "Just go outside in the parking lot. He'll have two Orcs standing beside him."

Skie flung the green, pebbly-skinned creature to the ground. With a heavy step, he made his way out the bar and passed the bouncer, showing his stamped hand. As soon as Skie walked out onto the slick black pavement of the parking lot outside, he scanned his surroundings.

"I was wondering when that stooge gathered enough courage to speak to you," called a soft voice from behind a Chevy Blazer. "But at least you're out here, Khellendros."

Skie turned around, his right first clinched tightly. With one hand outstretched to the SUV, Skie called to it. The SUV rose up high into the air and then was flung back, crashing into the empty street behind the bar. Skie found the one who kidnapped his niece standing between to Orc body guards. It was a gnome.

"A gnome?" Skie asked.

"My name is David," the gnome began. "And I have a proposition for you."

"Not interested!" he bellowed, sending forks of lightning spiraling towards the gnome and his henchmen. The Orcs dove away, and David ducked behind a mailbox. The Orcs rose up, pulling out their semi-automatic pistols from their holsters and started firing. Skie grinned and raised a hand up causing the bullets to slow and then halt right before his palm. With a dismissal gesture, the bullets turned around and shot back towards the two Orcs, spraying into their bodies. Blood splattered the pavement and the two Orcs collapsed to the ground, dropping their weapons as they fell. David lifted his head up and crept out from behind the mailbox. All he could do was applaud.

"Well done," David laughed, a haughty tone tipped his timbre. "Well done. I've heard about the magic of blue dragons, but I never thought magnetism was a part of it. Though it makes sense—you're practically a living Tesla coil. But I didn't come here to pick a fight."

"Don't you know the old saying?" Skie asked, a low, animalist growl rumbled out from his lips. "Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons…" As he spoke, Skie's form began to enlarge—spreading out to fill the entire parking lot. Hands twisted into blue-scaled claws, wings sprouted from the back, a tail grew out, slamming down upon a Porsche parked behind. Skie's face elongated, his nose and mouth growing into a lengthy, wedged like snout. Dramatically frilled ears roved around to catch every sound that was emitted from the parking lot and alley. Curved, ivory white horns jutted out from his skull, fading off to a blue shade at the ends. Two tusks protruded out from the lower lip and the lower jaw was covered in a pelt of shaggy, blue fur—similar to a beard on a human. A short blue mane grew out from the neck—like the mane of a horse. The dragon's massive head towered nearly 200 feet above the gnome. David stood back, craning his head awkwardly to get a better view of the dragon. His nose could pick up the distinct smell of sand and ozone—a scent common among all Chromatic Blue Dragons. He felt the ground shake beneath him when he heard the dragon let loose another growl and he heard the sound of static crackling and buzzing. Looking up, David saw the tips of the frilled ears ignite with sparks of blue-white. The dragon's mouth parted open and his purple-blue, forked tongue rolled out between his tusks. David's eyes widened when he saw the blue-white glow build up inside Skie's maw.

"Now…now…" he called. "You kill me…and you'll never find your mortal niece, Khellendros…Storm!"

Skie's head dipped down to the gnome's eye level. He dipped as low as he could bring one furious, fiery colored, slit-pupil eye on top of David's head. David duck down, feeling weak in his knees and his stomach dropping beyond his feet. Dragonfear, that is what it was called—an aura of dread and terror that all Oererth Dragons emanated from their hides. And a Great Wyrm was capable of unsettling the strongest of warriors just by being there. Though David was scared right now, Skie could not help but to notice the level of fright the gnome exuded. A deep sniff and the Blue Dragon could easily sense that David was being protected by something magical. It was enough to bypass most of the aura the dragon produced. Skie gave a mental shake to his head and his eye blinked.

"Where is she?" the dragon's deep, bellowing voice sent a chill down David's spine. The gnome let out a yelp when he heard a foreclaw slam down onto the pavement, sending shards of harden asphalt and tar up. Cracks splintered the blacktop from where the white talons sank in.

"Don't worry…" David began, trying to regain some amount of courage. "She's safe. I don't want to harm her. If I did—our deal would be null and void."

"I haven't agreed to anything," Skie growled. "Now, where is she?!"

"I won't tell you!" David cried. "Not unless you make a deal with me!"

"No deal!" Skie bellowed back. His frilled ears picked up a faint thumping sound echoing off from the tall buildings behind him.

"I have ways to make you listen to me…" David whispered.

Skie reared back, his red eyes picking up a reflection of streetlights on a shiny, back surface. The sound of blades whipping and chopping the air, sending a gust of wind towards him. It was a helicopter. The Blue Dragon parted his jaws and shot forth a mighty, lengthy bolt of lightning towards the chopper, causing it to explode in a fiery blaze into a glass-covered skyscraper. His ears picked up another thumping sound and he swung his head around to find three more helicopters hovering above him. Their undercarriages opened up and they sprayed a white powder upon the massive, 400-foot long Great Wyrm below. Skie ducked his head as the powder covered him in an ashy-gray film. Then, the helicopters flew off.

"What is this?" he asked, wiping some off his forearm. Suddenly, the world itself began to spin around him as he felt his joints weaken. Skie breathed heavily, his body crashing onto the pavement below. His body felt heavy, his strength was suddenly stolen from him.

"Interesting isn't it?" David asked. "Don't think I didn't come prepared for you, Skie. Not even an Ascended Dragon such as yourself can go against a wonderful mixture as this. It's my own concoction—pixie stun dust blended with a touch of Dragon's Bane. Granted stun dust has little affected against a blue dragon, but add a pinch of Dragon's Bane to it and it can bring even the biggest dragon down with ease. You won't die from it, of course—it's only a sprinkle of Dragon's Bane. I wouldn't want to dash you with the whole batch. You're no use to me dead. But now that I've got your attention…"

"What do you want?" Skie asked.

"Now you're in a listening mood…" David laughed. "I need you to fetch something for me. Do this task and I'll let your dear Melissa go. And you and her can live happily ever after. I knew I couldn't get you to do this without collateral."

Skie lifted his head up off the ground: "What—what is this task?"

David pulled out a scroll made of papyrus from his coat. Unrolling the scroll, he placed it before the Blue Dragon. Skie leaned over and examined the scroll. The scroll was written in hieroglyphics from Ancient Egypt. Various pictures detailed a story that Skie could only get a gist of. He was not familiar with the writings of Ancient Egypt. Though at the center of interest was a cartouche with symbols that were not hieroglyphics matching the rest that was written on the scroll. Beneath the cartouche was an ornate ring that had symbols, some matching the seven symbols on the cartouche. On the ring was also nine chevrons spaced evenly about the ring's surface. Skie knew this ring from somewhere, but his mind was a bit fuzzy about it.

"I want you to steal that," the gnome replied, pointing at the ring. "It is called the Stargate."

"Stargate…" the dragon whispered. "I know that from somewhere."

"Oererth has one," said David. "Though, I've heard it's unused since like all magical people, you have no use for such a device. The people of Oererth can travel by other 'roads'."

"If that's so, then why do you want it?" Skie asked, noticing the effects of the powder were beginning to wear off.

"While we magical beings have powers to create gating systems to various other planets and even the Planes that Be themselves, there are other places we cannot go," David said. "The Stargate has expanded that—it can go _anywhere_. Even places magic has not touched."

"You want me to go to Egypt, dig around the desert to find this—Stargate of yours?" Skie asked, even more perturbed than before.

"No, I want you to go to Colorado, and steal it," David replied.

"Colorado?" Skie asked. "It's in a museum in Colorado?"

"No," David replied. "It's inside a military installation called Area 52—Cheyenne Mountain."

"Absolutely not!" Skie bellowed. "I will not go marching into a heavily-armed, military installation to steal this Ancient Egyptian piece of scrap for your amusement."

"Then, you will not see your precious Melissa again," David warned. "And try to attack me again and the next drop will have a stronger dose of Dragon's Bane. I'll put you into a coma so deep that by the time you wake up—Melissa would have died of old age!"

Skie felt a pain pierce his heart when he heard those words 'Melissa' and 'old age'. One of the things he hated about himself as a dragon that he would out live Melissa. Many times, he thought about committing suicide after her death so that he would not out live her. The only reason why he did not commit suicide after Kirsten's death was because of Melissa. She was the only reason why he still lived. She was his life. Skie shut his eyes tightly for a moment, his mind fighting with itself on whether or not he should go. Then, he opened his eyes and stared down at the papyrus. Finally, he gave in.

"Very well," he rumbled. "I'll fetch your Stargate."

"Then, we have a deal?" David asked, holding out his hand. Skie hooked his fore-talon around the tiny hand.

"We—have a deal," the dragon replied.


	3. Robbed

**Robbed!**

SG-1 reconvened back in the briefing room a while later. All four of them each had their own thoughts on the present situation, ranging from confusion, awe, disbelief, and even a little anger.

"Okay," Jack said, breaking the silence, "We've just had our first real robbery. Robbery, vandalism, and a whole lot of property damage. Does anyone have an explanation for this? Is this even covered by our insurance?"

All eyes instinctively turned to Samantha, who stared back indignantly.

"How the hell should I know?", Sam cried out, "It was a winged beast of some kind. A sauropod, maybe. And one that just happens to be able to spit out lightning. If anything, that makes it a mythological creature."

"Dragon, Carter," Jack corrected, "You can say it. It was a dragon."

"With all due respect sir," Sam began, "Dragons don't exist! They're fairy-tale creatures."

"Then what would you call the beast that stole our Stargate, Major Carter?" Teal'c asked.

Sam was at a loss for words. She sat down at the conference table, defeated, and ran a hand through her hair.

"I don't know," she finally replied, "This seems more like Daniel's territory."

The focus of the group once again turned to Daniel, who looked as clueless about the situation as Samantha did.

"Well", Daniel began, "It was a giant, blue...dragon?"

"No! Really?", Jack sarcastically asked.

"Look, I don't know of any dragons from Oriental or European mythology that comes even close to what we just saw a little while ago," Daniel explained, "There's definitely nothing that speaks about electric spitting, blue dragons. I don't know what to tell you!"

Both Jack and Samantha lowered their heads, surprised that even Daniel was stumped about this.

"I'm afraid that there are no Goa'uld legends to refer to dragons either," Teal'c said, "The System Lords were more focused on enslaving their peoples through their own self proclaimed glories."

"Okay, so we're back to square one," Jack announced, "We don't know where this beast came from, or how he snuck into our heavily secured base. What we do know is that our Stargate is gone, and it sure as hell looks like we're gonna have a hard time trying to get it back."

General Hammond entered the briefing room at that moment. He held a thin file folder in his hand and wore an exasperated expression that was unlike the calm and collected authority figure that SG1 had been used to seeing.

"I just spoke with the President and appraised him of our situation," Hammond announced, "And, well...let's just say that things are about to get a whole lot more interesting."

Hammond handed the file to Jack, who carefully studied its contents. Sam, Daniel, and Teal'c stood behind him, trying to gaze at the sensitive information brought before them. Jack quickly scanned over the last paper and handed the file back to Samantha.But not before giving General Hammond an odd stare of his own.

"You're joking, right?"

No, the General was not.

Although it took a few hours to set up the meeting, the people at Stargate Command were about to be visited by the United State's government's foremost authority...on magical creatures.There wasn't much to be said about their upcoming arrival. All they knew was that her name was Edna Loamsdown and that she worked for a secret branch of the government that was named Sector X. Sector X, apparently, kept a tight wrap on any and all magical activities that took place on Earth and made sure that the knowledge never became publicly known.And apparently there were magical communities all the world over, unseen, and unnoticed by the regular human eye.Until now, that is. Someone from one of these communities had just revealed themselves in a very big way, and Sector X was going to tell the SGC why.General Hammond and the senior staff of Stargate Command, including SG1, awaited Edna's arrival in the briefing room. The tension was thick and emotions, although well concealed by nearly all, ran high. Particularly with Samantha, who was still trying to wrap her mind around all that had just happened.After what seemed like an eternity, the door was opened. All eyes immediately turned to the new arrival...The very diminutive new arrival. Who wore sandals on her hairy feet.A business suit adorned her small, plump form, and the file she carried just about obscured her face. Bouncy brown hair flowed down from the top of her hair and to her shoulders, but it did not conceal her pointed ears. Finally, the small woman approached the table where everyone sat at and set her file down in one of the chairs, revealing her flushed but surprisingly adult face.

"You're Edna Loamsdown?" General Hammond slowly.

"I am," a slightly English accented voice answered. "And I see he's caused quite a ruckus with you."

"He?" Jack asked, leaning down. "General, what is this?"

"Edna is an agent with a secret organization that works for the government in trying to keep all things of magic secret from the eyes of what they call 'mortals'," Hammond replied.

"Mortals?" Daniel asked.

"Humans," Edna replied. "You to be precise."

"Oh," Daniel replied.

"To relieve any other questions, I'm a Halfling," Edna replied.

"Hobbit," Daniel gasped. "Little people from ancient folklore."

"Yes," Edna replied.

"I thought you were just legend…"

"We are real," said Edna. "Every thing you ever read about in fairytales are true. Some more frightening than others. If the Dark Times had not come, we would be sharing our world with yours. But humans became fearful of magical creatures. So, an agreement was made to make the world of mortals forget magic and we then have been hiding since. It started when the Roman Empire began the Western Empire and the Roman Catholic Church."

"Of course," Daniel nodded, glancing around at the others. "The Dark Ages, Middle Ages…ages of superstition and animosity towards all things different. During those times, if you were even suspected of witchcraft and sorcery, you were put to death."

"That went double for magical creatures," said Edna. "To protect ourselves, we had to hide from mortal eyes. We've been doing so for almost a thousand years now."

"Look, this is all—very interesting…" Jack interrupted. "I'm sure. But before Daniel's head explodes even further, my I ask who or what stole our Stargate?"

"It was a dragon," Teal'c said.

"I know that," Jack grunted. "But…"

"Not just any dragon," Edna began. "An Oererth Chromatic Great Wyrm Blue Dragon."

"And that means…" Jack began. "What?"

"His name is Khellendros," Edna said. "Skie to your mortals. He is the son of Electrius, the High Chancellor of Wyrms on the planet Oererth."

"An alien dragon?" Sam Carter's eyes blinked in disbelief.

"Yes," she replied. "Earth dragons are no more intelligent than an alligator. And they're no larger than a Ford F-150."

"The blue dragon that attacked us was a bit larger than that," said Carter.

"How did this alien dragon get here?" Teal'c asked.

"I don't remember seeing something big, blue and scaly come from the gate in our past missions," said Jack.

"There are other ways of traveling between worlds besides your Stargate," said Edna. "Which is why I have no idea why Skie would do such a thing. Skie has been on our planet for quite some time, an agreement between the High Chancellor and us. You might call it a peace treaty. Because of the Dark Ages, many of magical creatures from Earth flooded Oererth in an effort to escape the Roman Catholic Church. Electrius wouldn't stand for such a mass immigration and so, he closed the gate between our two worlds—something similar to what is happening between the US and Mexico."

"Illegal immigrants," Jack sighed.

"But Khellendros actually had sympathy to our plight," Edna continued. "He demanded his father to reopen the gate. Electrius decided that if Skie so loved this world, to seal the deal—Skie should come and live here. It took nearly 700 years for Skie to convince Electrius, so he's only been here for the last 150 years. Other dragons have come from Oererth to settle on Earth, but the main one we know most of about is Skie himself."

"So, why the hell did he take our gate?" Jack asked.

"Skie, like his father, has powers over portals," said Edna. "So, I don't know why. Electrius and Skie serve as guardians two the portal between the two worlds. If Skie wanted to, he could easily just go back home and Electrius would send another to take his place. I don't know why Skie would want to take your gate. My best guess is for you to go and ask him."

"Ask him?" Jack asked. He glanced back at Hammond who nodded this head. "General."

"That's right, Colonel," said Hammond. "The President wants you to go find Khellendros and get him to give us back our gate and hopefully with an explanation as to why he took it."

"We've informed Electrius," Edna began. "And he has spoken to the President. The Chancellor wants answers as well. This is something Khellendros would never do—not unless he's been forced to."

"The President knows about…"

"No," Edna stated. "When we informed the Chancellor of the incident, he demanded to speak to the highest authority, the Head of State as an effort to possibly quell any potential grievances that might occur from such a theft. The last thing Electrius wants is a war. He knew that such a theft would be mistaken for an act of war."

"Is Electrius the ruler of Oererth?" Daniel asked.

"He likes to think he is," Edna smiled softly. "He is the middle-ground when it comes to interstellar relations. Because dragons have lived for so long, they are sometimes the best at being chosen for diplomatic relations. They remember history better. But the High Chancellor is the ruling party of the Dragons of Oererth. The Dragons of Oererth are the most powerful dragons in the known universe. Many scientific based worlds like the Tolans and the Nox have come to term Oererth Dragons as Advanced Dragons. Their magic gives them a sense of understanding on how the universe works—and they are in no way 'young' or 'ignorant'. They were the ones who established the network of portals between various worlds using their magic. They just do things a different way."

Carter shook her head: "What Skie did…it just seems impossible."

"Impossible?" Jack asked. "That's a first for you. Never thought I'd hear that coming from you."

"He activated the gate without any computer program or DHD," Samantha continued. "Used it as some sort of traveling device and then reached up and pulled the gate through the wormhole. That's—literally impossible."

"Maybe for you," said Edna.

"Let's get down to business," Hammond began. "SG-1 is to find Skie and get the gate back from him. Edna here has stated there was a fight that broke out in Atlanta, Georgia a few days ago."

"Atlanta?" Jack asked. "Skie is in Atlanta?"

"Our reports tell us that Skie lairs in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee," said Edna. "However, he has an apartment in a suburb of Atlanta. Dragons tend to keep many places where they sleep and often they are a few hundred miles away from each other."

"He has an apartment?" Daniel asked.

"How would he be able to fit in an apartment?" Sam asked.

"Like most dragons from Oererth, Skie can shapeshift into human form," replied Edna. "The best way to hide is to hide in plain sight. All magical creatures are told to live out normal mundane lives like you mortals do. Skie is no exception. He owns an apartment, a car, pays taxes, votes, and goes on vacation from time to time. In order to do this, he conceals his draconic nature with a human form. He can look like anyone he chooses."

"That would make it more difficult to find him," said Teal'c flatly, lifting an eyebrow.

"More work for us…" Jack sighed. "Wonderful, we're going on a dragon hunt. Anyone have a lance?"

"This is a serious matter, Colonel," began Hammond. "That gate must be returned."

"Right…" Jack nodded, his voice still holding some sarcasm. "Don't worry."

He glanced back at Major Samantha Carter who was shaking her head dismally. In her mind, all of this did not make sense. Dragons were real, magic was real—every belief she had that such things were nothing more than superstitious nonsense held truth now. It felt like her world was now about to crash.

"Carter…" Jack began.

"I—I just…" she began. "Dragons, magic, elves, Hobbits…I just—don't know…"

He scooted closer to her: "Carter, now's not the time to have a mental breakdown. Just put it all behind you."

"Yes, sir," she nodded.

"There is a club called the _Emerald City,_" continued Edna. "That is where Skie was last reported. A fight broke out and several magical creatures reported that Skie shifted in his dragon form and attacked a helicopter. My suggestion is to start there. The damage was a bit extensive to the complexes around the club. Several vehicles were also damaged, tossed about. Skie can command magnetism, and well—his great strength alone can toss a bus around effortlessly in human form. Someone said he was attacking a gnome. We don't know who the gnome was, but Skie killed two of his Orc companions. That's all I can give you so far." She reached into her purse and pulled out a device that looked like a calculator. "Here, take this with you. It's a detector of magic. It can detect magical energies from people and objects. Skie is a Great Wyrm, he radiates magic. You'll know he's around even if you're just a hundred feet away from him in a dense crowd. And it works as a homing device. When the dragon is around, you'll see a ping on the screen. Also these cards will give you immunity as well. They'll let magical creatures know you are helping Sector X and they'll be more open to give you information."

She handed each of SG-1 a special card.

"Well, you have your orders," said Hammond. "Keep in touch. I've arranged a flight to the Atlanta airport. There'll be a rental car waiting for you once you arrive. Dismissed."


	4. Southern Chills

**Southern Chills**

Skie settled himself down on the ground, one claw draped lazily over the Stargate's surface. He felt a lock of his blue mane blow into his eyes as the wind picked up around him. Glancing up, he noticed a black, shiny body descend down from the evening sunset-lit sky. It was one of David's black helicopters. Skie shifted his massive bulk, lying like a great tiger on the green crabgrass. Behind him was Stone Mountain. The faces of Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis carved onto the granite's surface were lit up with spotlights. Skie's massive form filled the surrounding plateau, his head coming up to the carving itself. Though for this meeting, the park itself was closed. As the chopper set down David with a few more Orc body guards hopped out. David took in a breath and glanced back at the carving behind him.

"Awkward meeting place, Khellendros," he noted vocally with a dismissal to the carving. "This is the very spot where a group of men in white sheets burned a cross in order to revive the Ku Klux Klan—an embodiment of the very deep-rooted bigotry, and racial injustice the Roman Catholic Church placed upon our kind once upon a time. How did you manage to clear the park?"

"I have my ways," Skie replied. "Well, here it is. The Stargate."

His claw lifted up from the metallic ring as David moved closer to inspect it. He placed his hand around the dark, metallic surface. It was cool to the touch. Then, he glanced back up at Skie.

"Well done," he said to the Blue Dragon.

"Well then," Skie rumbled. "I've done what you've asked, now where is Melissa? I want to see her."

"Your task is not complete," David said coolly. "For this is not the Stargate I wanted. This is the Stargate you'll need, though."

"What?!" Skie bellowed, lifting off the ground. David glanced up, hearing the sound of buzzing and crackling, seeing sparks of blue-white appear around Skie's ears again. "Do not anger me further! I will find no remorse in devouring you."

"Do that and you'll never see Melissa," said David. "More helicopters are on their way with another batch of that powder. Don't cross me, dragon. I wanted you to get this gate because you'll need it in order to find the other one."

"Other one?" Skie asked.

"Yes, the other one," said David. "You have the power to command portals. No doubt you've used the power of this gate to your advantage. Only you can use this gate to find the other one. The other one I have heard tales of…it is the first Stargate placed on Earth."

"Where is it?" Skie asked.

"I don't know," David replied. "That's why I needed you. You and your father have the ability to command a gate or portal and turn it into something like a divining rod to locate another gate like it."

"Why not use this one for your—plans…whatever they may be?" Skie asked.

"I can't," David replied. "This one doesn't have a—Dial Home Device—a control pad that's able to dial up locations so the gate will open up."

"The humans had equipment in their base," said the dragon. "Computers, software. They were able to create a 'Dial Home Device' with their technology."

"Actually their method is basically speed manual dialing," David replied. "The ring turns like a dial on a rotary phone or a rotary combination lock. I can't duplicate their software. And your magic is only good enough to use the gate's energy to allow you to teleport farther. The other gate has a Dial Home Device and it's calibrated for that gate. So, you'll need to bring both."

Skie sighed, completely defeated. Going after the other gate would mean Melissa's freedom, though he was furious at the gnome for not informing him about the second gate. Glancing down at the Giza Stargate, the Blue Dragon touched its surface and let out a soft whisper. The gate came to life, all nine chevrons glowing brightly as if it was about to open up. Then, eight chevrons dimmed, leaving only one to glow brightly. Skie glanced down at the single lit chevron and then to the direction it was 'pointing' to. It was pointing south.

"South," he said. "There's your second gate."

"Good!" David called. "Now, go after it."

"No…"

"Yes, Skie," David said. "I can't lug this thing around through airports chasing after the other one. However, you can fly great distances. Use the gate as a guide and find the other one."

"How far south do I need to go?" Skie asked.

"As far as that device states," David replied, pointing at the Giza Stargate.

Skie's scaly blue shoulders slumped down: "Lovely. I hope it's not in the far cold south. I hate the cold."

"Only one way to find out," David began, kicking the Stargate. Skie growled again, taking hold of the ring and charging it up.

_Show me the way…_

Skie glanced up, drawing in the energy from the gate itself and shooting it out from his fore-talon. The air rippled and fluctuated, expelling out from a central point like a gush of water, only to be sucked back in, creating a pool of glowing liquid. Skie rose up and placed the Stargate around his neck.

"You know what you must do, Khellendros," David hissed back, pointing at the portal. "Bring me the other Stargate and Melissa is yours."

Skie let loose a grimace, parting his jaws slightly just to show off the glowing nimbus that began to build in his mouth. Then, with one leap, he shot through the portal. A smile curled up David's face as he saw the portal close up behind the Great Wyrm. He pulled a medallion out from his blazer's pocket and grinned down at it. Etched into the surface was an image of an octopus spreading its tentacles out as if it was about to encompass the medallion.

"Soon…" he whispered. "Very soon."

0

As the portal opened up above the icy glacier, Khellendros was suddenly spat out onto the frosty ground. The moment he hit the ice, he rolled nose first, tumbling to a stop on his back. Gasping deeply for air, Skie rose his head up off the snow and ice, giving it a good rub wit his claw. Pulling his claw away, he noticed a long lock of silvery-white, soft curly hair flowing down from his neck. His hair was not the only thing that had changed, his body as well changed, looking more youthful—his blue scales took on more of a brilliant sheen. It was the effects of being Ascended, a feature Skie did not want to show off often.

"Oh-no…" he sighed. "The _Polymorph _spell wore off. Creating a portal such a distance must have taken a lot out of me."

Skie shook his head, letting the long, silvery locks fall loose around his shoulders. Vapor escaped from his mouth and the frigid wind bit into his scales. Skie gasped again, wrapping his wings around his body, trying to conserve warmth. Blue Dragons were not fans of the cold, they preferred hot, arid areas like deserts and badlands.

"Where am I?" he whispered to himself. Glancing around, Skie noticed the sun was up and the air was strangely clear. It was daytime and the sun was rather low, but bright. He could feel some of its warmth but the cold of the ice was far stronger. Skie recalled it being winter in Georgia, though Georgia did not have much along the lines of winter. Still, the days were shorter and the nights were longer. Instinctively, he knew that meant the far North would have been completely night. Yet, here he was sitting in the middle of a glacier in full sun. His red eyes lit up and his mouth dropped in surprise.

"Oh—damn…" he breathed. "I'm in Antarctica! The South Pole! Wonderful, I love deserts, but not frozen deserts."

Skie glanced down at the Stargate around his neck, noticing that one chevron was blinking.

"Who the hell would want to put a Stargate in a frozen wasteland?" he growled. "Or…for that matter under a glacier?"

Skie removed the Stargate and set it on the ground. He began to move it around one particular spot, noticing that the chevrons individually lit up to point at the center of the spot.

"It's under the glacier…" Skie sighed in defeat. "Under—all that ice…all that cold ice."

He stared at that spot for a while, keeping himself wrapped up in his broad wings. Blue Dragons were excellent at burrowing, but only through rock, dirt, and sand. Ice was another story for him. Skie growled in frustration, pushing the Stargate out of the way. He reared his head back and fired a powerful stream of lightning from his mouth. The lightning struck and ice shards flew from the impact. Skie once more charged up for another shot. With the power of his lightning, Skie slowly carved away at the ice, creating a long tunnel to the second gate. He took the Giza Gate with him, following its direction further down into the ice. The deeper he went, the more he shivered from the cold. Being Ascended did not help him defeat the chill that overtook him. He found the power of his mighty breath weapon become weaker as his chill continued. Skie could feel his bones start to ache from the cold. Frost and snow covered his snout, arms, back, and wings. His mane was wet and clung to his neck and back. He would not die from the cold that was considered a natural death—a death Ascended Dragons never fell to. Though, just because he could not die from the cold did not mean he could not suffer from it, nor could it mean that he could not be trapped by it either. Skie panted, his breath making a deep growling sound, similar to that of a lion. He had to pause for a moment, leaning up against the ice wall of his tunnel. Skie dipped his head down to brush a few snow-covered, wet locks from his brow. He glanced down at the Stargate around his neck, seeing the chevron continue to flash, providing him with some light. Though Skie did not need the light as much because of his darkvision, it helped some by providing contrast in the ice sheet. The light from the opening of the tunnel above was slowly dimming out to a fine point.

Skie knelt over, rubbing his front paws together, breathing into them to keep them warm. He heard a rumbling sound from all around him and he felt the tunnel shake, sending ice dust falling from the ceiling. Skie glanced back up towards the opening of his tunnel through the ice. The light from the sun disappeared as the ice itself shifted.

"Why do I have a feeling global warming had something to do with that?" Skie sighed as he leaned his head back against the ice. Then, the floor began to move beneath him, cracking and splintering under his weight. "Uh-oh…"

The ice opened up and Skie felt his body fall through. He let out a surprised yelp, falling a few hundred feet deeper into the ice. Finally, he hit a frozen hard, but stable bottom—landing directly on his tailbone. Growling with frustration, the nearly half frozen Blue Dragon rose up from icy floor, gasping for breath. He felt the cold pain of the air as he breathed, but that did not stop him. Blinking away the ice that covered his eyelids, Skie brought himself onto his haunches, his hind legs spread out slightly. He felt something poke him in the back and he slowly got up to see what it was. It was a circular device on a pedestal with a red orb at the center. Symbols similar to the symbols on the Stargate at his neck were carved into the surface. Then, his eyes moved over two a figure frozen in the ice. The figure was obviously human in appearance, wearing silver armor and chainmail. A metallic spear was at his side. The figure appeared to have been frozen in the ice for a long time. With a careful talon, Skie removed the abdomen plate and pulled away the split in the chainmail to reveal an X-shaped opening in the stomach. It was a pouch like on a marsupial.

"Jafa," he whispered, realizing what the human-like creature was. Skie lifted his head up and saw the object of his search—the Antarctic Stargate. "Oh—thank you, Jesus, Buddha, Allah, Shiva…Satan…I don't care…thank you…"

The Blue Dragon slammed his head onto the ice floor in exhaustion before the gate. He heard the ice rumble again.

"Oh…absolutely not!" Skie growled. "I'm not gonna end up like this Jafa. I won't be frozen in the ice."

Skie leaned over and began to scrape away at the ice around the ring itself. Finally, it came loose and he pulled it free from the ice, placing it around his neck with the other one. Skie began scrapping then at the Dial Home Device, wiggling it as gently as he could until it came loose. Then, his eyes came to the Jafa in the ice. Its staff weapon protruded out and Skie leaned down, breathing his hot breath—hoping to free it. It finally slid free and the dragon brought it up to his face.

"If I remember right…this thing can fire energy blasts…" he began.

He knew his spell cache was running low, he could not muster up the energy to even blast his own way out with his breath weapon now. Though, even low with energy, Skie had enough to perform one _Enlarging _spell on the staff weapon. The staff grew, becoming a sized that accommodated Skie's own. Tucking the weapon under his armpit and holding tightly, Skie aimed the spearhead up towards where his tunnel began and pressed a button on the shaft. The spearhead opened up, energy of gold sparked around its tip. Gripping the shaft with both claws, Skie fired the weapon, sending the golden blast up through the tunnel and through the cave-in. Disturbed ice fell upon him, but he kept firing until he saw the sun's light peak through the hole. Skie smiled in relief, taking the Dial Home Device in one claw and the staff weapon in the other. He began to slowly climb out, using the talons of his alar phalange of his wings to help him ease out of the tunnel.

"When I get out of here, I'm gonna eat that damned gnome!" Skie bellowed as he emerged from the exit. "He'll pay for sending me to this frozen wasteland and kidnapping my niece! I swear it!"

Rearing back onto his haunches, the Great Wyrm leaned wearily against the staff weapon and touched the Antarctic Gate.

"I just hope you still work after all this time," Skie began. "Looks like you've been down there for a good tens of thousands of years. I just hope I have enough energy to bring me back to warmer climates. I don't think I could stand another hour here."

Gathering what magical energies he had left, he touched the Antarctic Gate, feeling it come to life. With his outstretched claw, Skie produced the portal for him to leave the frozen continent of Antarctica.


	5. Atlanta’s Dragon

**Atlanta's Dragon**

After a good three hour flight from Colorado and a plane change in Memphis, Tennessee, SG-1 finally found themselves in Atlanta, Georgia, home of the Braves, the Turner Network, CNN, and the Coca-Cola Bottling Company. Not to mention Jeff Foxworthy. They were dressed in civilian attire and were unarmed. Teal'c had on a Braves baseball cap to cover the golden symbol on his forehead. Hammond instructed that he will send armaments when it was time to face down the dragon though Edna had advised against it. Jack could not help but to agree, noticing how the SGC's weapons and even alien technology had little effect on the marauding reptile. When they arrived at the _Emerald City_, they heard a lot of construction noises going on in the background.

"Sounds like this is the place," Jack stated, readjusting his sunglasses. "Must have been one hell of a fight."

Carter, for the most part, remained silent, only giving slight nods to her superior that indicated she was listening. She leaned over, noticing the construction workers begin to fill in a massive hole in the back lot. Standing around them was a rather large, husky-looking man with a rather distinct under bite and a sloped forehead. She thought she saw a sharp tooth sticking out from the lower lip. The man was obviously keeping watch for any eavesdroppers.

"Maybe we should—go check it out," she motioned.

"That sounds reasonable," said Daniel.

"Indeed," Teal'c agreed.

"Okay, then," Jack nodded. "Let's follow the yellow brick road."

Just as they moved towards the construction in the back lot, the large man came walking up to them.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he asked, leaning down to the group.

"We're just…looking at what's going on," Daniel replied. "Uh, what happened?"

"That's none of your business," the guard growled. "Now scram!"

"Look, we were sent here," Jack began, bringing out the card Edna gave him. "On official business. Now, just let us in and we'll keep to ourselves."

The guard glanced down at the card: "Sector X sent you?" He glanced back. "Bernie! Come over here!"

"Yes, yes, what is it?" sighed a voice as a rather tall, slender, and angular featured man walked up behind the guard.

"These mortals state Sector X sent them," the guard stated.

"Sector X?!" Bernie gasped. "Let them in, you idiot! I'm so sorry. Mortals, eh? Since when do mortals work for Sector X? Must be that new affirmative action law now. Come in and take a good look at what happened. My name is Bernard."

"You're both…magical creatures?" Daniel asked.

"Yes," Bernie replied, flipping back his long blond hair to reveal a pair of pointed ears. "I'm an elf. And don't mind Eliot. Stubborn as an Orc should be. Eliot, you're blocking their path."

"Sorry, boss…"

"I am the assistant manager of the _Emerald City _night club," said Bernie. "It's one of five magical night clubs in town and certainly the best. My boss Ms. Evans is on vacation this weak. I haven't told her about what happened three nights ago. I'm sure she'd give me a good skinning once she finds out."

"What is she?" Jack asked.

"Sasquatch," Bernie replied.

"Big Foot?" Jack asked. "The owner of this night club is Big Foot?"

"Actually there's many of them," said Bernie. "But yes. Big Foot."

"Uh, we were told that what did this to your club was a dragon…" said Daniel. "Named Skie."

"Skie, yes, I know him," Bernie nodded. "The Great Storm himself. Well, when I hope you do find him, you make him pay for the damages. Dragons are very well off you know. Hoards. Lots of gold. I think a chest should pay for the damages to the lot and that TV-set he broke."

"He broke a TV-set?" Sam asked.

"There was a hobgoblin Skie was talking to one of the guests stated," said Bernie. "And the hobgoblin really angered him. So, Skie tried to strike him down with one of his lightning bolts and blew the tube. Then, after that, a Troll tried to attack Skie, but Skie—er—flicked him across the room and into a wall. Shattered the nice hardwood too. That stuff is expensive. Cherry wood. Very nice. That blasted blue lizard will pay for that too!"

"He—flicked the Troll…" Jack blinked in disbelief.

"Yes, flick, with his fingers," said Bernie.

"Skie's strength is truly insurmountable," noted Teal'c.

"That's also—impossible…" Samantha shook her head.

"Hmph!" snorted Bernie. "Tell that to Skie when you see him. I know you're after him. He should be made to pay for this damage. He knows better than to draw attention from the mortals. It's all over the news! Others from Sector X have been busy trying to cover this up. But when something like an Oererth Dragon is involved, it's hard not to. It's like covering up an attack made by—Godzilla!"

"Nice analogy," Daniel smiled back.

Jack nodded and glanced around, noticing some of the cars that were on the parking lot smashed to bits. A van was lying in a hole in the wall of a building adjacent to the parking lot itself.

"This Skie does fine work…" he noted. "Daniel, is that a van in the wall?"

"Yes, it is," said Daniel as he walked towards it to inspect it.

"I'd be careful…" began Bernie, calling after Daniel. "You're walking into…"

Just as Daniel turned around, he found himself tumbling into a massive hole in the pavement. The rest of SG-1 came running after him. Samantha stopped, her eyes bulging out of their sockets with utter surprise. Her heart was fluttering in her chest and she breathed heavily as she looked at the shape of that hole. She could not believe what she was seeing. Jack and Teal'c helped Daniel out of the hole and the archeologist dusted himself off.

"Have a nice trip?" Jack grinned.

"Yeah…" Daniel sighed. He glanced back, studying the shape of the hole. Then, he froze as well.

"Jack, that's a…a…" he breathed.

"It's impossible…" Sam began. She spied three other holes as well and she began to walk around them, her mind doing all sorts of calculations. Each of the holes were about 15-20 feet long, 10 feet wide, and almost 5 feet deep.

"What is it, Daniel?" Jack asked.

"It's a…footprint," Daniel blinked. "A really—BIG footprint."

"All four holes are footprints," said Sam as she walked around them. "Feet this size would put the creature that made them—about 300-400 feet long and weighing almost 30 thousand tons."

"The dragon that stole the Stargate wasn't even close to that size," Teal'c began. "It was nothing more than the size of one of your Earth houses, O'Neill."

"Yeah, those are Skie's footprints, alright," nodded Bernie. "He's a Great Wyrm Blue Dragon. They grow over 400 feet long once they hit around the age category of Ancient. What, you didn't know that?"

"Apparently, Skie can change his size as well as his shape," said Teal'c.

"It would appear so…" Daniel nodded. "He had to—in order to get inside the mountain and to the gate. Something 400 feet long can't possibly fit inside the Gate room."

"It's—impossible…" Carter shook her head again. "Something that size—to even be able to stand up—let alone fly. Colonel, this defies all known physics laws. I mean, Skie alone—his size breaks the Square-Cube Law."

"The—what?" Jack asked.

"The law that applies to proportions as well as size and weight," she replied. "When a physical object maintains the same density and is scaled up, its mass is increased by the cube of the multiplier while its surface area only increases by the square of said multiplier. This would mean that when the larger version of the object is accelerated at the same rate as the original, more pressure would be exerted on the surface of the larger object."

"English…Carter…" Jack said softly.

"It means, sir," she began. "That something that walks on 4 legs and is 400 feet long and somewhere weighing 30 thousand tons would be crushed by its own weight. It also means that something that size wouldn't be able to fly either. His wings would break just by trying to exert the power to lift his massive weight in our gravity."

"The Goa'uld ships are pretty massive," said Daniel.

"That's different," Carter stated. "Their technology is built upon mechanics. The amount of power it takes for a ship like that to take off…is different than say a giant bird the same size using wings to lift off. He would have to have some sort of antigravity belt just to stand on our planet let alone fly! This would make more sense if Skie was some sort of space dragon that traveled in outer space where there's very low gravity."

"He is a space dragon…" Jack stated.

"That's not the same…" Carter threw up her arms in frustration. "It makes no sense! It just doesn't! Something that size shouldn't even exist! He's not supposed to exist! This—mythological creature defies the laws of physics!"

"Carter, calm down," Jack began softly. "You're making a scene…"

"I can't!" Sam cried, pacing up and down like an agitated cat behind a cage. "I can't! It doesn't make sense! And he can shapeshift into smaller forms and even change his size! Even that defies science. Where does it go? Where does his mass go? If he shrinks, that means he becomes denser if he retains the same mass—which means he'll weigh the same as he does in his true size. There should be human footprints 5 feet deep around here and there isn't."

"Carter…just admit that there are some things out there you can't explain," Jack continued, trying to calm her down. "Just—let it go."

"That's not it…Jack…" Sam shook her head feverishly, her frustrations almost driving her to tears. "It's the fact—I've based my whole life on science. Science was the answer to everything, science could explain it once you figure out the equation—and that's what I've based my life on. It gave me answers. Now—here comes this—_thing_—this thing that was supposed to be imaginary…something from story books or Hollywood blockbuster movies. Something that I knew scientifically could _not _exist. It throws my whole perspective on reality—on science—on everything I've worked hard on—studied on my whole life…this Skie Khellendros—his very existence throws all of that out the window! I can—accept elves, Halflings, Orcs…I can accept their existence. And maybe—a dragon that's the size of a truck—but not something that has beaten out the An-225 Cossack in size!"

"I take it this is your first dragon case…" began Bernie.

"Well, yeah…" Daniel replied. "We're not from Sector X, but they were the ones who pointed us to here."

"Oh…" Bernie said. "I understand. Secrets, no doubt. We have ours, you have yours. Well, since you're working with Sector X in trying to locate Skie, those cards should help you in asking questions around town. Skie lives in Atlanta, mostly. But good luck finding him! He spends most of his time in human form."

"The agent from Sector X stated that there was a gnome and two Orcs with Skie," said Teal'c.

"That gnome…" Bernie shrugged. "I don't know him personally, but I did see him send the hobgoblin out to find Skie in the club. Skie came in that night, stating he was waiting for someone. Then he and the little hobgoblin came out here. And that's when it happened."

Samantha gathered herself up from her frustrations and walked around the back lot to another depression showing the sheer massive size of the dragon they were hunting down. The depression looked as if the dragon was lying on that spot, which was apparently outlined by some sort of white, chalky substance that sparkled slightly in the sun. She walked over to the white powder, kneeling down to touch it.

"Uh, don't do that!" Bernie called, which grabbed everyone else's attention. The elf and the rest of SG-1 came running for Samantha. "Don't touch that! I wouldn't. That's Pixie Stun Dust. Unless you wanna be knocked out for a few hours, I wouldn't allow it to come in contact with your skin."

"Stun dust?" asked Samantha. "Seems like Skie was lying on the ground here with this stuff all over him."

"Stun dust has no affect on a Blue Dragon," said Bernie. "But, someone from Sector X who was here before you came stated this dust was mostly likely to be mixed with Dragon's Bane."

"Dragon's Bane?" Daniel asked.

"It's a poison that affects only dragons," said Bernie. "It's deadly to them. This only had a pinch of Dragon's Bane—but it was enough to counteract Skie's natural immunity to Pixie Stun Dust to make him succumb to it. Dragon's Bane weakens a dragon, takes away his power, and his stamina—all that a fearsome dragon is—Dragon's Bane takes away."

"Sir," began Carter. "This stuff looked like it was dropped from above."

"The helicopter," Jack nodded.

"No doubt it took one of your flying machines to do so," said Teal'c. "Given the true size of the dragon."

"Enough to make Skie listen to whoever wanted him to listen," said Daniel. "The gnome. I bet he wanted Skie to steal our gate."

"A dragon, a gnome…and some pixie dust…" Jack sighed. He glanced down as he saw Samantha grab her coat and scoop some dust into a plastic bag. "Careful with that, Carter."

"I wanna take this back to the lab for testing," said Samantha. She stared back at the depression and continued to shake her head. "Look at the size of it…"

"Sam…" Jack began. "Just get over it."

"It's hard," she shook her head again. "It's just too hard."

"Alright, I think we've seen enough," said Jack. "Thanks. We'll continue the search."

"Sure," said Bernie.

"You don't happen to know where exactly Skie lives," Daniel asked.

"Somewhere in one of the suburbs," said Bernie. "But when in doubt, check the phonebook."

"Check the phonebook…" Jack sneered. "What?"

"Thank you," Daniel nodded.

0

They stopped in their search to take a rest on at a corner coffee café. Teal'c was staring inquisitively at a mocha latte which Sam had ordered. Jack and Daniel had just ordered coffee.

"It's a mocha, Teal'c," said Sam. "It's good. It has coffee, chocolate, whipped cream, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg in it. You should try it."

"No thank you, Major Carter," he replied.

"I don't blame you," said Jack. "I'm not much of a latte guy either."

Teal'c's reply was just a slight raised eyebrow in Jack's direction. Daniel could not help but to grin slightly. Just then, Teal'c rose from his seat and walked over to a payphone booth.

"Was it something I said?" Jack asked. "Teal'c! That's a payphone. You pay money to call someone. But we don't need it, we have our cell-phones."

"Didn't the elf suggest to look in the phone directory for where Skie lives?" Teal'c asked.

"I think he was joking, Teal'c," Jack said.

Daniel rose up from his seat and walked over to Teal'c, staring down at the phonebook.

"I don't think so, Jack," he said. "Skie Khellendros is in the phonebook."

"What?!" Jack gasped.

"He's the only one listed as Khellendros," said Teal'c. "And it has his address and phone number."

"Look in the phonebook…" Jack shook his head. "To find the dragon…look in the phonebook…for cryin' out loud…"

"Wow that was incredibly…easy…" Daniel began.

"Easy…" Jack shook his head. "A dragon is listed in a phonebook."

"Most people don't know he's a dragon…" Daniel shrugged. "What does he have to fear?"

"So, where to now?" Sam asked.

"To the dragon's den—or apartment…" Daniel grinned sheepishly.

"And here I thought we needed to consult a riddling troll for directions," Jack sighed, his voice retaining that hint of sarcasm. "A phonebook…"

It was short drive to the suburbs on the north side of Atlanta, though Jack hated going through so much traffic. Teal'c was very silent during the trip, glancing around with some shy interest at the buildings they passed on their way up through Atlanta. Samantha again remained silent, trying to clear her head on the audacity of the situation, a 400-foot long dragon that lived in an apartment near Decatur, Georgia, in a suburb of Atlanta. This dragon somehow has the power to control the Stargate and make it perform odd tasks not intended by the original designers. Now, in order to find this dragon, they had to travel to Atlanta—and all they had to do was check the phonebook to see where he lived. None of this made sense. Daniel, who was also thinking about the dragon being in the phonebook just could not believe this apartment didn't include some dark cave and a maze and mounds of gold. By the time they got there, Daniel could not help but to note the cleanliness of the apartment complex. It was a nice building built in a nice neighborhood with children playing and people taking walks with their dogs. He could not help but to think most of these people were completely oblivious to the fact that one of their neighbors was a mythological creature.

As they climbed the stares, Jack reached into his pocket and turned on the device that would detect magical creatures in the area. So far, the device was not signally anything. Daniel and Sam were feeling nervous, but Teal'c kept his cool about him. When they finally got to the door of the apartment, Jack paused and glanced back to the others.

"Okay…now what?" Daniel asked.

"I think we should…knock…Daniel," Jack said as he knocked on the door.

"Right…" Daniel nodded. "And he'll come to the door and ask what we want like anyone else would."

No answer came.

"No one's home," Teal'c stated.

"Skie's out," said Carter.

"Right…" sighed Jack.

"Now what?" Daniel asked.

"Who the hell are you?!" bellowed a voice from across the hall. Jack glanced down and heard his machine beep uncontrollably. He took it out of his pocket and noticed it was pointing at where the voice came from. There stood a man with dark, shoulder-length hair, tanned skin, a goatee, and the most intense blue eyes anyone has ever seen. The eyes were slit like that of a cat's eyes. He wore a blue shirt and blue jeans. He looked well built as well, tall, and lithe. Daniel could not help but to notice the shadow the man cast in the sun. It was not the shadow of a man, it was the shadow of a dragon. That man was Skie Khellendros!

"Jack…" Daniel began in a whisper. "His shadow…"

"Yeah…I see it," Jack began. "Uh, are you Skie Khellendros?"

"Yes," the man replied, his voice obviously held an Australian accent. "Why? Who are you, what do you want?"

"Our—Stargate…" Jack replied, grinning back.


	6. So, You Scratch My Back

**So, You Scratch My Back…**

Skie sat down in his comfy, arm chair with a glass of sweet tea in his hand. SG-1 all sat down on various chairs and the couch that was in the room. Daniel looked around the décor about Skie's apartment. It was not plain to begin with. There were Japanese, black lacquer panels with pearl designs, some old English vases, and a palm tree. The couch he sat on was suede and he felt like he could fall asleep right there on it. Daniel could not help but to notice a pink, plush unicorn sitting next to him on the couch. What was Skie doing with a child's toy?

"Dr. Jackson, Colonel O'Neill, Teal'c—with an apostrophe, and Major Carter who is also a doctor in astrophysics…" Skie began, examining his company. "And you are here to ask this old dragon for the return of your precious Stargate. I am amused…"

"Wonderful…" Jack began. "I have to hand it to you. That was nice work you did back at the SGC. You broke into our facility, stole our gate—but did not kill a single one of us."

"I have no reason to do so," Skie replied. "I wasn't after lives, just the gate."

Skie turned to Sam Carter who he noticed was staring at him. She did not blink once.

"Is there something wrong with my shirt?" he asked.

"Carter…" Jack began. "The dragon asked you a question."

"I can't help it…" she breathed. "He's 400 feet long and yet…he's…right now he's…it's impossible…"

"Sam…" said Jack. "Not now."

"I can't help it!" Sam called. "He's not supposed to be real. He's not supposed to exist and—look at him—sitting there, completely oblivious to all the physics laws he's broken just walking up those stares."

"I beg your pardon?" Skie asked.

"You're a child's fairytale!" Sam cried. "And you know what, I didn't like fairytales because I liked only what was real—what I could see."

"Madame," Skie rose up from his seat. "I am very much real as you are. I can't help the fact my father was a dragon and so was my mother. And I can't help the fact that the magical world has stolen its secrets from you—hidden themselves so that my kind would be nothing more than fairytales. But you asked for it just for what you're doing now! Even on my world, we were hunted down because morals like you feared us! And why did you fear us? Because you didn't understand us. You can't understand that something as big as me could also be gentle and kind and not cruel—or spiteful. We're not the dragons you read of in fairytales, monsters that steal young virgins in the night. We are people too. We have feelings, thoughts, wants, desires. We have lives." He moved towards her, kneeling down to her. "I wake up every morning and put on my pants one leg at a time like you do."

"It's not that…" Sam shook her head. "It's the fact something as big as you shouldn't be able to stand up…shouldn't be able to fly."

"I see," Skie said. "Here I come, something you can't explain through your science and yet here I am. I exist. I exist. I change my size—so where does the mass go? That's the big question, isn't it? I can fly despite being larger than your largest airplane. Well, ask yourself this. Bees fly, yet they have little wings in contrast to their large bodies. Can your science explain that?"

"Not—exactly…" Sam began. "There have been theories…"

"Well, now," Skie said. "There you are. Bees fly, but you can't explain it and yet you accept it. Well, accept the fact I'm 400 feet long and can stand up on not only four legs but even two legs, I spit lightning, and can shapeshift, and use abilities beyond your comprehension. Maybe there is a scientific explanation for what I do, but you're not advanced enough to figure it out. I was born before your species even knew how to write. Before your species discovered how to create fire on your own without lightning to help. Understand? I have a greater understanding on how things work than you do. And they say my species is arrogant! And yet—here you are—just because you can't explain my existence I all of a sudden don't have the right to exist. Who are you to judge?"

"We're sorry," said Daniel. "But we are trying to keep an open mind about this. It's very new and strange to us and it's a lot to take in."

"Now that was the smartest thing I heard all day," Skie smiled softly back. He turned to Sam. "Intelligence doesn't equal smarts, dear girl—nor does it equal wisdom. Some of the most intelligent people I've known are complete idiots. I just hope you're not one of them. If you were spouting such repertoire to one of the dragons back on Oererth, you'd find yourself in their bellies faster than you can say EMC2."

"You know Einstein's theories?" Sam asked.

"I've read him," Skie replied. "Just because I'm magical doesn't mean I don't have an open mind about things. Besides, one of my in-laws is related to one of the founders of the city that built the A-bomb back in WWII."

Samantha felt a little more comfortable after that knowing this dragon at least knew some sort of science. She got up and began to walk around the apartment, letting her mind settle back a bit more comfortably.

"Okay, this is all really nice and all…" Jack began. "But—our Stargate."

"Yes, your Stargate," Skie nodded. "So sorry, but I don't intend to give it back until I'm done with it."

"You stole government property," said Jack. "Top secret government property, okay? Now, we're giving you a chance to just give us back the Stargate and we'll walk away and leave you alone, but 'no' isn't an answer you can give us. We want it back."

"It is a dangerous artifact," said Teal'c. "You don't know what you have in your possession."

"I beg to differ on what I understand," Skie scoffed. "I just used your gate as an instant teleportation device without the help of DHDs or any other special devices."

He paused for a moment and gave a sniff to the air around Teal'c.

"You're Jafa, right?" Skie asked.

"You know what he is?" Daniel asked.

"I can smell the Goa'uld inside of his pouch," the Blue Dragon replied.

"You know of the Goa'ulds?" Jack asked. "Teal'c, Skie says he knows the Goa'ulds and yet you stated you've never heard of his kind before. Why is that?"

"Maybe because it's something he's forbidden to say," Skie smiled. "A few millennia ago, the Goa'ulds came to Oererth in attempt to make hosts for themselves. They chose all sorts of stocks, human, elf, dwarf, Orc, Troll…these proved promising in some ways. Then, they turned on us dragons, thinking our great power in their hands would make a formidable weapon. They captured a young Copper Dragon, tied her down, and proceeded to put a symbiote inside her. When the creature tried to take over the dragon's body, it died—killing the young dragon in the process. Apparently our minds were so complex the Goa'ulds could not control them and died trying. So, they attacked us, knowing that now that they couldn't control us—we were better off dead. And we defended ourselves. We suffered heavy losses but we were successful in driving them away from our planet. We sealed up the gate and placed a magical shield around our world which would protect us from Goa'uld invaders."

"The Goa'ulds can't take over your bodies…" breathed Daniel.

"Teal'c?" Jack asked, wanting an explanation.

"I am sorry, O'Neill," he rumbled. "But what Khellendros told you is the truth. All Jafa were sworn never to even mention such a failure. It was—ingrained into our minds not to speak of it."

"It happened when I was just a wyrmling," Skie said. "My father Electrius fought with the forces to protect our world. So, yes, I know of the Goa'ulds. I have also encountered them as well. The worlds that are connected to our magical network of gates and portals—some of them are also connected to the Stargate network too. It was why I knew the image when David showed it to me—I knew what I was after."

"David?" Jack asked

"The gnome that sent me out to steal your Stargate," Skie replied. "He is the one who wants it."

"What does he intend to use it for?" Teal'c asked.

"I don't know," Skie replied. "I just know he wants it. Everyone has their secrets…"

"Who is she?" Samantha asked as she picked up a photo of Skie in his human form smiling and leaning down to a little girl with blonde hair. She was holding the pink, plush unicorn in her arms.

Skie leaned up and took the photo from her hands: "This is my niece Melissa. She's human—mortal like you. No magic powers. Same as her aunt—my late wife Kirsten. When you've been living with humans for so long, you tend to love as one of them. I am Melissa's only guardian—her adoptive father. Kirsten and I won custody of her from her abusive father when Melissa was still a baby. Melissa's mother Karen—Kirsten's identical twin—committed suicide. Then—a few years after that Kirsten came down with leukemia and finally passed away. Melissa and I have been alone ever since."

"Where is Melissa?" she asked.

Skie blue eyes turned away, filling up with much pain. He bit his lip and walked back to the chair, settling himself down into a slow rock.

"David kidnapped her nearly five days ago…" Skie replied. "The night of her disappearance, I received a note to see David at the _Emerald City _night club. I went and saw him, demanding that he return her to me. I transformed, killed his guards, hoping that would scare him into releasing her. Instead, he dropped that Dragon's Bane-enhanced stun dust on me and told me to steal your Stargate." His fingers balled into white-knuckled fists and his lip began to tremble in anger. Jack heard the sound of thunder outside as it vibrated through the dining table in the living room. Skie continued, his voice breaking into a sob: "I refused him. I told him I wouldn't do his dirty work. He said—he'd make sure I'll never see Melissa again…"

Getting up, he moved to the coffee table where the camcorder was sitting on. He leaned down and turned it on, handing it to Jack. Sam, Daniel, and Teal'c moved in, watching the movie of the last few moments Skie had with his niece in the playground at the park. Sam placed her hand over her mouth and she felt tears sting her eyes. Though Teal'c did not show it, even he was moved to sadness as the images reminded him of his own son. Jack was the one who was hit the hardest, seeing a vision of Charlie playing. Skie was a guardian—a worried father of a little girl who had no mother—no real father to turn to. All she had was the Blue Dragon, and all he had was her.

"Now—you know why I took your Stargate," Skie shuddered. "I have no use for it, but I had to—for my darling Melissa. She's my world—she's worth more than all the gold pieces in my hoard. I wanted to strike out at that damned gnome, but he has the powder. I'm literally powerless against him."

"So, you took our Stargate to save your niece?" Daniel asked.

"Yes," he replied. "Only it was not your Stargate David wanted. He needed me to use your Stargate to find the other one in Antarctica."

"Another Stargate?" Sam asked. "There's two?"

"Sometimes a world will have another Stargate on them," said Teal'c. "That is not uncommon. Usually there is one main gate and a secondary one."

"Why did he need the other one?" Daniel asked.

"Because it had the Dial Home Device," Skie replied. "Yours did not. But he wants yours out of the way so it will not interfere with his."

"And you don't know why he wants it," Jack sighed. "A kidnapped kid and two Stargates."

"I'll tell you what…" Skie began. "If you help me get my niece back, I'll be happy to relinquish the two Stargates to you. No strings attached."

"You want us to help you rescue your niece and for that you'll give us back our Stargate and the one from Antarctica?" Daniel asked. "Jack…I think we should do it."

"She's a little girl, sir," said Sam. "It's not right."

"I also agree on this," Teal'c nodded.

"I'm all for it too…" Jack replied. "But we need to inform Hammond about this. This changes everything."

"I understand," Skie said. "You may use my phone."

"No, I got it," Jack sighed as he took out his cell phone, dialing up Hammond's number. "General? Yeah, we've found the dragon and we've spoken to him. He's told us why he stole the gate. His niece was kidnapped and the guy who kidnapped her told him if he brings the gate—Skie will get her back. Yeah…well…I just thought you should know. Skie said he'll give us back not only our Stargate, but the one he found in Antarctica if we help him rescue his niece. Everyone wants to do it. Well—we've got his backing. She's about 7 or 8 years old. Okay…yes, sir." He closed the phone up and glanced back at Skie. "Alright, we'll help you."

A smile spread across Skie's face and his heart felt like it had become lighter.

"Thank you," he said to Jack. "Thank you. And I will keep my promise. I always do."

"Where are the two Stargates?" Sam asked.

"My lair," Skie replied. "In the Smokies. I can teleport us there. It will not take long. I haven't notified David about returning yet. I'm a bit low on magic right now and I thought I'd rest up—maybe check the mail before I go back and rest up. My great power requires rest when I use it up. I should have enough of a spell cache to get us to my lair. I just hope I have enough for my breath weapon when we go. I want to give that blasted gnome a good shocking of his life."

"Alright…" Jack began, rising up. "Let's do it."


	7. A Collection That Puts a Museum to Shame

**A Collection That Puts a Museum and an Armory to Shame**

"Hammond said to phone back when we reach where ever that gnome is…" said Jack as they appeared over a rocky ledge. Skie stumbled forward, gasping for air. The last jump was a bit much for him and he was already feeling his magic go. Samantha leaned over and took hold of his arm. She could tell he was straining right now, his face began to morph and twist. He was battling against his waning _Polymorph_spell and he was loosing. Fighting the change only made it painful for him. Daniel shivered for a moment, noticing the temperature change. They were obviously high up on a mountain. All around him, the waning autumn trees swayed. In front was a stone cliff, bare. Skie, still struggling with his powers, shouted out a magical word and the cliff opened up, revealing a vast chamber inside. The cavern in the mountain was massive, large enough to house a dragon of Skie's great stature. They traveled down the slope, torches igniting by themselves as they came in.

"Motion…sensitive…" Skie gasped. As soon as all torches came on SG-1 stopped and stared with wide eyes at the auditorium-like cavern they spied before them. It was filled with gold, silver, and jewels of priceless value. There were objects and artifacts from all periods of Earth's history inside. Daniel was the most awestruck. He had walked into an archeologist's paradise.

"Jack…" he breathed. "Greece, Rome, Egypt…China, Japan…Norse, artifacts from all sorts of times and places. I've never seen such a vast collection."

"Yeah—wow…" Jack replied, unamused. "So, the dragon's a pack rat."

"Look at all this treasure," said Sam.

"It shames even the wealthiest of Goa'uld," Teal'c noted deeply.

"Yeah…okay…" Jack nodded. "But those two are the only things I'm interested in."

He pointed out towards the far wall of the cavern to the two Stargates.

"This puts the Smithsonian to shame…" Daniel breathed. "No museum could compare to the collection here." He glanced down at Skie, who was now on his hands and knees. "Hello…are you okay?"

"I think—its best you—stand back…" Skie grunted. "Unless—you want to be—crushed…"

"Jack," began Daniel. "I think we better move."

"What?" Jack asked.

"Move!" Daniel cried as he saw Skie literally explode out into his dragon form. Skie's morph was not smooth as it usually was when he had control over the spell that made him human. His body contorted, stretching out, becoming immensely massive and muscular. His clothes ripped off his body as his skin was covered in shining blue scales. White hair sprouted out, falling about his shoulders as his wings sprouted and spread wide from his back. Skie's neck elongated and became armored like a tank. His face grew long, becoming reptilian, his lips ending with a beak. Tusks jutted out of his lower lip. White horns sprouted from his head as his ears enlarged and became frilled.

Jack felt his heart drop into his stomach when he looked upon the massive dragon's form. Skie was much larger than he was when he attacked Cheyenne Mountain. Sam's eyes bulged out of their sockets again when she saw just how massive the dragon really was. She felt she had to recalculate the dragon's weight again. One of his taloned fingers could easily crush her into a bloody smear.

"Good God!" Jack finally spoke out. "He's Godzilla with blue scales."

Teal'c's cheek trembled. Samantha just blinked.

Once the transformation completed, Khellendros let out a powerful, earth shaking bellow, rearing back to his hind legs. Stalactites on the ceiling above cracked and fell to the ground, crashing into the hoard and pelting SG-1 with gold coins and flying diamonds. They ducked down to protect themselves from the shards of rock and coins flying towards them. Skie fell back onto his all fours, his front paws sending earthquakes into the ground as he landed. He settled as softly as he could down onto the hoard, gasping again.

"Shit…" Jack breathed, trembling where he stood before the enormous Great Wyrm.

Skie's tail softly patted the coins he laid upon and his head drooped low. Jack turned back to Daniel who finally got over his Dragonfear. He was studying the gold coins that had splashed upon him earlier.

"Doubloons," he said. "Spanish doubloons. Aztec gold pieces…"

"Skie…" Jack gathered himself up to approach the dragon. "The gnome."

"Right…" Skie sighed. "Give me a moment. It's jarring for me to change like that as it is for you to watch me change."

He finally brought himself up back to his feet and slowly lumbered towards a pool of water at the other far wall.

"This—isn't exactly time for a bath…" Jack stated as he followed the Blue Dragon.

"Hah!" Skie laughed. "Don't be absurd, mortal. This is a looking glass."

Skie leaned over as Jack and his team gathered around the pool. Daniel was holding up an ancient Egyptian, beaded, gold collar, inspecting it.

"Make yourselves scarce," the dragon warned as he dipped his claw into the water. "I don't want David to know what we're up to."

"Daniel!" Jack called, pulling the archeologist away from the pool. "Come on."

"_Skie!"_came the voice of David as his image appeared in the pool of water. _"I was wondering when you were going to call. Dear God, man, you look like hell!"_

"I spent 10 long hours digging around the icy wastes of Antarctica to find your bloody gate," Skie growled, lighting began to spark about his ear frills. "I nearly became apart of the scenery thanks to you. I have it! Now, let me see Melissa!"

"_All in due time," _David smiled smugly at the dragon. _"But first, you must bring both gates to me. Then, you may at last be rejoined with your precious niece."_

"If you have harmed her in any way…"

"_No harm has come to her," _said the gnome. _"I assure you. I've heard rumors. Electrius has heard about the theft. I hear he's furious at you and he fears that what you've done might cause a war between our two worlds. It's so exciting that I can cause such a ruse!"_

"Don't laugh long, gnome!" Khellendros bellowed, feeling some of his strength coming back. "You forget who I'm related to!"

"_If you intend on bringing Electrius here…" _David began. _"Our deal is over. I'll take the two gates for myself and you'll and your pompous, bloated father will be a new set of matching suitcases! Do not dare threaten me, dragon!"_

"Arrogance!" Khellendros roared out. "Insolent mollusk! Consider yourself lucky you have that Ace up your sleeve—if not, I would have killed you the night we met!"

"_All bark and no bite, Skie…"_ David chuckled back. _"You don't scare me. Now, be a good delivery boy and bring me my gates and you'll receive your payment. Here are the coordinates to my mansion. You will meet me there. And no funny business—or the girl gets it…"_

With that, the gnome's image disappeared. Khellendros let out an infuriated roar, sending shards of rock falling from the ceiling again and splashing into the pool.

"Yup…that's definitely our guy…" Jack nodded. "Skie, listen, I'll ante up. We help you, you give us the gate, and I'll make sure you don't take the blame when it comes time to give your dad a ring."

"You know I'm Electrius' son?" Skie asked, glancing back at the human.

"We've been informed," Jack shrugged. "Electrius is afraid of a potential war because you stole top secret government property. To me—I think you had a justified reason—though I think you could have done it a little nicer."

"What was I supposed to do?" he asked. "Ask you for the Stargate?"

"Okay, good point…" Jack cocked his head up at the dragon.

"I think what Jack is saying that we'll put in a good word for you," said Daniel. "Make Electrius understand your reasoning. Does he even know about Melissa?"

"He does," Skie replied. "He's visited her. On my world, it isn't looked down upon to marry into mortal families, though it is often not suggested because of draconic life spans are much longer than yours. When I married Kirsten, he was happy, when I took care of Melissa, he was there to support me. If he knew why I stole the gate, he would reconsider my punishment."

"We'll try to get him to let you off for good behavior," Jack's eyes squinted at Skie. He watched as the dragon rose up and grabbed the two gates, placing them around his neck. Skie searched around his hoard, pulling two golden arm bracers and a silver ring. The bracers grew to his size and he clasped them onto his forearms and then he placed the ring round his finger.

"Daniel, that Egyptian collar you were holding, could you hand it to me?" he asked as he leaned his massive claw down to the historian. Daniel woke up from his inspecting of the collar and glanced back at the blue claw. Nodding silently, he placed the collar into the dragon's palm, standing back as Skie lifted it up. The collar grew, becoming long enough for him to place it around his neck under the two gates. Skie glanced back at Teal'c. "I believe a Jafa should never go into battle unarmed. On that wall over there is a Jafa staff weapon. It is fully charged. You may take it with you."

Teal'c bowed his head respectfully at the dragon's offer as he moved towards the staff weapon. He pulled it free from the wall and inspected it, opening up the spear head.

"Where did you get it?" he asked.

"When I dug through that ice," Skie began. "I found the Gate and a frozen, dead Jafa at the DHD. The ice was closing around me, so I used a spell to enlarge the staff to fit my size and blasted my way out using it. I just took it with me after that."

"Thank you," Teal'c dipped his head again.

"Why did you put jewelry on?" Jack asked.

"My spell cache is severely low," Skie replied. "The collar, arm bracers, and ring are magical items I can use despite that. The collar boosts my remaining spell cache quota, the ring helps to boost my breath weapon's power. The arm bracers will increase my toughness and it'll help against the affects of that powder."

"Great…got anything for us?" he asked. "Like a submachine gun? Pistol? Rifle? Zat? A tank, maybe?"

Khellendros chuckled as his tail snaked around to a gold, tasseled cord. The tail wrapped around the cord and pulled at it. A depression in the wall moved back and then off to the side, revealing a secret chamber. Shelves folded out as torches ignited to light what was inside. Jack's eyes grew wide when he found the shelves stocked with various weapons both modern and ancient.

"Take your pick," Skie smirked back at the dumbfounded human.

"You've got to be kidding me…" Jack breathed. "What would a dragon do with a rocket launcher?"

"As you've stated, I'm a pack rat," Skie replied.

"It's every weapon imaginable, Colonel," Sam said as she pulled out a submachine gun from the shelf. "Good condition too. Brand new. Every weapon except a nuke is in here."

"Don't tell me you got a nuke…" Jack glanced back at Skie.

"What do you take me for?" Skie asked. "Stupid? I'm insulted. Of course I don't have a nuke. Just your average conventional weapons. Grenades…rockets, guns with magazines, shells, anything you can think of. No nukes."

"I like you," Jack called back to the dragon.

"Just as long as you don't breathe a word of my—collection," Skie chuckled as he started for the opening of his lair.

Jack agreed, giving the 'zipped lips' motion to the dragon. They walked back outside onto the ledge. Skie seated himself, his tail tapping the ledge which caused the door to close behind him.

"So, how do we get there?" Jack asked.

"Fly," Skie replied.

"You mean we—ride you?" Sam asked.

"Scared, my dear?"

"Well—it's not that…" Daniel replied. "You don't exactly have—seatbelts."

"Fine then, you can walk…" Skie snorted. "But it's a good 400 miles to Atlanta."

"I suppose we don't exactly have a choice in the matter," Teal'c cocked an eyebrow. They stood back as Khellendros lowered himself to the ground, leaning his neck down to them.

"Think of me as a rather large F-18," the dragon grinned back as his companions grabbed hold of his frosty-colored mane. He turned his neck slightly down to help them ease up onto the back of his neck. As soon as he felt them settle themselves down between his wings, Skie lifted himself back up. "Now, just keep your seats and tray tables in their upright positions. I'm sorry, there won't be an in-flight movie…"

"Just take off…" Jack said, grabbing hold as much of Skie's mane as he could.

Skie let out a laugh as he spread his wings, bounding off the cliff's ledge. The wind whistled and whirled around the passengers as the dragon gained altitude into the low, gray clouds above. Jack scooted himself up Skie's neck, bringing himself closer to one of the massive frilled ears.

"I have a question!" Jack shouted, realizing the wind made it difficult for his voice to carry.

"What is it?" Skie asked, bellowing back.

"You're a big, flying, monster!" Jack shouted again.

"What's your point?" Skie asked.

"You're gonna make a huge radar signature!" Jack called. "There's an Air Force base near here. They're gonna think you're a UFO and try to contact you. If you don't answer, they'll try to shoot you down and us with you!"

"Don't worry about it, Colonel!" Skie called. "With the added boost of my spells, I can project a cloaking signature that will mask my flight path. Basically once I pass over their radar, I'll make nothing more than the radar signature of a sparrow!"

"That's great!" Jack called. "But they're still gonna see you."

"No, they won't!"

"You're gonna make you and us invisible like you did when you attacked Cheyenne?" he shouted.

"No," Skie replied. "I don't have enough for a long invisibility, however, I'm dragging this cloud with me. They won't see me through it."

"That's nice!" Jack called. "I guess you have to think about how to conceal yourself when you fly."

"That's basically the idea!" Skie bellowed. "But I suppose the government knows about me now thanks to what I've done. But I'm sure that base down there don't know about you. So, the concealment is more for you than me!"

"How nice of you!" Jack could not help but to let slip some of that sarcasm in his voice.

"Ask the Major how she likes flying on something that scientifically shouldn't be able to fly even at these speeds…" Skie chuckled.

"Yeah, I'll do that," Jack shouted. "How fast are we going anyways?"

"I'm sorry, I don't have a speedometer with me," Skie called. "But I can estimate. I'd say—about 300 miles per hour."

"How fast can you fly?"

"What, like a sprint?" Skie asked. "I'm not exactly a good sprinter. My wings are built for long distance flight like an albatross. I'm a marathon flyer! But I can reach close to 500 miles per hour if I push it hard enough. But that's a very short sprint. But we don't measure the speed of our flights, more as how long we can stay up."

"Okay, how long can you fly non-stop?" Jack asked.

"9891 miles—non-stop," Skie replied.

"All—almost 10 thousand miles?" Jack asked. "You can fly that long?"

"Yeah!" Skie replied. "Well, that's when I actually needed to eat and sleep. I'm an Ascended Dragon, I don't need to eat and sleep anymore. So, I can stay up in the air indefinitely." He turned his head slightly back to the human. "Forever. But who wants to fly that long? I guess I can just circumnavigate the entire planet if I wanted to—pole to pole, or swing around the equator."

"Yeah, that's what I call marathon flying!" Jack nodded. "Are you flying below commercial and military flight paths?"

"Primarily," Skie replied. "Don't worry, I'll see a plane coming towards me before you will anyways. I normally fly around 10 thousand feet. Higher if I have to go over tall mountains. Don't be so worried, Colonel. We magical creatures have procedures too. If a commercial airline sees me, Sector X will come in and alter the memories and alter the flight logs."

"Just try to steer clear of any L1011s," Jack said as he scooted himself back towards his team.

"I'll keep that in mind," Skie said as his head turned back to the front.

"Well?" Sam asked.

"He asked how you're taking it…about flying on something that should have the power to fly on its own…" Jack asked.

"Pretty good…" Sam replied. "I've got—some theories on how he might be able to do it. Most of those theories revolve around cold fusion, but it's good enough."

"That's good," Jack nodded.

"I've had dreams about riding on dragons…" Daniel called. "Never thought I would get a chance to do it!"

"It's an experience," said Teal'c. "Riding on a creature this large."

"Well, be lucky he's not wanting to see if we're edible," Jack stated, still holding some of that sarcasm. He glanced down to see if he could see the ground. The cloud that followed Skie obscured the view. He looked up instead, seeing the white, fluffy clouds above streak by in the deep blue sky. He noticed that Skie's scales were the same azure color as the sky itself. Skie could very well just fly in the sky without any concealment, his scales providing the perfect camouflage for flight. Though, Jack had a feeling that once they got into more smog-filled industrial areas, the concealment would not last long. The sky would become a paler blue and Skie's form would be revealed. So, there was reason for the cloud. Daniel and Teal'c glanced back behind them, seeing the two massive wings working in a slight circular motion. The triangular wing blades at the dragon's back moved up and down at the motion of the wings' downward beat. Sam leaned down, swearing she could hear the sound of the dragon's massive heart beat through the body. Once more her mind was whirling around in various theories on how Khellendros could keep himself aloft. For a creature his size, his heart must be incredibly strong and his lungs massive to take in so much oxygen to power the heart. She felt the mane she held in her hands, noticing they were protein fibers like the hear mammals had. And yet, this was a reptile—or was he a reptile? His body was more mammalian than it was saurian, built like a great cat. His wings were shaped more like that of a bat than a pteranodon. Even his claws held a sight feline appearance. But he was a dragon, he was covered in hardened scales and plates. Samantha shook her head, she was not a biologist, she was an astrophysicist. Still, she did study some biology and she could not help but think that Khellendros was neither a reptile, nor a mammal. He was more of a hodgepodge of various known animals. And that is what a dragon was.

Jack glanced down at his cell phone and noticed he had fairly good reception even at this altitude. He called up Hammond, informing the General where Skie was taking them. As soon as he got that note, Hammond sent contacted the Air Force base near them to send out supplies at a rendezvous point near where the mansion was. He scooted back up towards Skie's head again.

"Skie!" Jack shouted. "Listen, I've contacted General Hammond. We need to land before we get to the mansion. He wants to meet us about 10 miles west of Macon."

"Macon is where we're headed, that's where David's mansion is!" Skie bellowed back. "But sure, I can take a detour before we get there. I just hope your General's men can take seeing something as big as me flying towards them."

"I think he's informed them about you," said Jack. "He'll be there too."

"I just hope you put in a good word for me with him too," Skie chuckled, his tone holding some uneasiness.

"Don't worry about it, he understands!" called Jack. "But, maybe you should leave the talking to me!"

"Sounds good…" Skie sighed, his head turning back towards the front. He grumbled to himself silently as he pushed himself through the clouds. Meeting this general was only wasting precious time he needed in order to rescue his niece. She was counting on him to be there for her. Skie let loose another growl, his eyes narrowing as he focused on his objective.

_That gnome will pay, I swear it…_


	8. Things are Stranger than They Seem

**Things are Stranger than They Seem**

It was about an hour's flight to the west side of Macon, Georgia. The sun was already starting to set below the horizon, but that did not hinder Skie's powerful vision. He spied several army trucks drive up and pause at a closed rest stop along the highway. Then, his eyes glanced up as his ears picked up the sound of an Air Force helicopter flying along side of him. The chopper itself was puny compared to the massive Blue Dragon. It flew over Skie's wing and then headed towards his head, shining its spot directly upon the dragon's eyes. Skie flinched, growling annoyingly at the chopper, one of his multiple lids closing down to help against the glare. Then, his eyes spotted a bolding, plump human dressed in military attire with a pair of headphones on his head pulling the door open. The human motioned with a gesture to Skie to land, point down towards the trucks below. Khellendros gave a nod of acknowledgement and angled his wings, diving towards the ground. Swiftly, he backwinged, landing as softly as he could while military personnel scattered about him. Guns were pointed at him, triggers were ready.

"Stand down!" Skie heard the sound of the human from the helicopter call out. He jumped down from the chopper and parted his way through the crowd of soldiers around him. Skie lowered his neck to the ground and allowed his passengers to jump off.

"General Hammond…" gasped Samantha.

"Hey, General…" Jack nodded. "Look what we brought? He's got them both on his neck."

"I see that," Hammond nodded. "I've got men who are nearly scared out of their wits right now, but are trying hard to keep calm. So, I better make this quick…"

He glanced up and cautiously approached the Blue Dragon standing before him. Hammond craned his head back as best as he could as Khellendros slowly lowered his head to him.

"Mr. Khellendros…" he began. "I am General Hammond. I believe one of those belongs to us."

"Both of them now belong to you," Skie replied. "In return for borrowing SG-1 for a small mission."

"Right, your niece," Hammond nodded. "This agreement goes against all military protocol I can think of. I could be laughed out of the Air Force for what I'm about to do for you. A lot of me don't want to make a bargain with someone who—broke in and caused at least 2 million dollars worth of taxpayer's money in damages and stole top secret government proper. Now, this damage doesn't include the psychological damages you've inflicted upon my men and women. I've got personnel strung up in straight jackets, claiming to be seeing demons all because of you."

"Dragonfear is a powerful weapon among my kind, General," Skie replied. "And it was intended to be psychological in nature. An unnerved warrior is an inefficient one."

"That is true," Hammond stated flatly. "I see you've somehow supplied SG-1 with weapons. I have—no idea where you got them…"

"Ebay," Skie grinned in smugness.

"I wouldn't doubt that," he sighed, turning back to Colonel Jack O'Neill. "Alright, you can go with him. But there is one more thing and this was suggested by both the President and Chancellor Electrius."

"What's that, sir?" Jack asked.

"We'll discuss it when you return," Hammond said. "But believe me, it won't be in Skie's favor. He can't go unpunished for this."

"Sir, I don't think a State Pen can hold something like Skie," said Sam.

"They have something else in mind…" said Hammond. "Trust me. Even you will find it—funny."

"Funny, sir?" O'Neill asked.

"Funny," Hammond smiled seriously, glancing behind his shoulder at Skie who looked around at the many eyes aiming at him. Within 10 minutes, the SG-1 team was once more dressed in their uniforms. Skie lowered his head down and lowered his body—allowing the humans and the Jafa to mount back up onto his neck again.

"I'll be following behind," said Hammond.

"I don't want David alerted to any of your presence," Skie growled back. "Who knows what that could mean for Melissa."

"So, what's the plan again?" Daniel asked.

"Good question…" Jack sighed.

"I'll land close to the Mansion, you all jump down and infiltrate the back," Skie began. "Get Melissa out of there while I'll keep David occupied, pretending I'm about to present him with both Stargates. Once I know Melissa's safe, then David will get what he deserves…"

"So, you're bate…" Daniel said.

"Better him than us…" Jack retorted.

"I heard that…" Skie growled as he opened his wings up and then snapped back to his sides. "Remember, I'm the distraction. It's up to you to get her out of there and to a safe place. She's the only reason why I haven't killed that gnome yet and once I know she's in good hands, they'll be nothing holding me back."

He bounded over military personnel and vehicles, bringing himself into a powerful gallop. Once Skie felt he was at the right speeds, his wings opened, ready to swoop the moment his hind legs kicked off the ground. Gaining altitude, Skie settled himself into a glide, catching thermals in the night air. It was not long before he saw the light of the mansion below where David lived. It was a white plantation house with sable palm trees lining the courtyard. There was a stable out back and Skie's ears picked up the whine of horses. They sensed his approached and they were frightened beyond calming. Skie landed in the courtyard and glanced slightly back, signaling for SG-1 to slide off.

"Okay, get going…" he whispered. His head turned back around as he saw David come out followed by two Orc body guards. Jack and his team dove into the bushes behind the dragon, making their way towards the back.

"Skie!" David called. "And you have my gates. The DHD too?"

Skie nodded, lowering both gates and the dial home device down for the gnome to inspect.

"Here's your trinkets, now, where's Melissa?"

"Like a broken record, aren't you?" David asked. "Don't you want to see what I have planned for the Stargate?"

"I don't care about that," Skie said. "A deal's a deal. I've done my half, now it's time for you to pay up."

"In due time, my friend," said David. "But first, I'd love to show you what I have planned. I think since you are known throughout the cosmos as the Portal Master, you would find this interesting to say the least."

Skie's red eyes shifted over to the shadowy figures of SG-1 as they dashed behind the house.

_Obviously I need to by them more time…_he thought. "Very well, show me what you intend to use the Stargate for."

"Of course," David grinned. "If you don't mind, stand the Antarctic Gate up to where it's stable on its own."

Skie sighed as he pulled the gate up, standing it on end. Then, when he felt it was balanced enough, he let it go. David knelt down and with the help from the Orcs, he rigged the Dial Home Device up to the Stargate. Another Orc came outside with a specialized device. Skie sensed the amount of power that was in the device itself, it did not seem like much to him.

"I need you to do one more favor…" David continued. "Zap that device with your breath weapon."

"Why?"

"You're the only one who can power it," he replied. "And power it properly."

Skie sighed, rearing his head back. A bolt of lightning shot out from his jaws and struck the spherical device below. It came to life, striking the gate and powering it up.

"Now, pay attention…" David stated as he began to dial the gate. Skie counted the chevrons as they lit up one by one until the 9th one flashed on. He recalled that normally Stargates were dialed with seven chevrons though he heard rumors that the 8th was dialing outside the galaxy he could not recall what the 9th one really meant. Skie tried to search his mind for that information as the flush of liquid flowed out of the gate then back in, creating a pool at the event horizon.

_The gate can go anywhere…_Skie thought. _Even beyond…beyond…as in Outside. The Outside…oh…dear Gods…_

"The gate is open…" David turned back to the dragon. "Beyond anywhere it has ever opened to."

"Where—did you open it to?" Skie asked, completely terrified of what the answer might be.

"Outside," David replied.

Skie's ruby eyes widened as he began to back away from the Stargate. A tentacle slowly slithered out of the gate. Though the Stargate, once opened on one end could only be traveled one way—so says the rules and mechanics of those who built it. The problem is, whatever began to slither out from the gate itself did not obey any rules set by this universe. Skie has been around, traveled even the various dimensions of this universe, ventured to the Outer Planes, to the Astral, to the Ethereal, and even the elemental Inner Planes, so he had heard his share of stories. The Stargate did not open a door way between worlds or even between galaxies—it created a rift through the very fabric of space and time itself.

"You remember that old story, Skie?" David asked, watching with satisfaction as the tentacle slid further through the gate, joined by more tentacles. "That legend of some shifter on the Astral Plane who tried to _Planeshift_ himself back to the Prime Material Plane, but had an awful accident. He created a tear through the Astral Plane and was sucked into a horrible universe Outside our great Multiverse and all of its dimensions and infinite Planes of existence. You know where he was sucked into?"

"The Far Realm," Skie breathed, stepping further back as the horrid, tentacled creature emerged from the Stargate. "Close the gate."

"Guess what the 9th Chevron leads to?" David giggled with glee. "The builders of the Stargate network had no idea what power they held."

"Close the gate, gnome," Skie began to breathe heavily. "Close the gate now! There's already one creature from the Far Realm running amuck through the Multiverse! We don't need more."

"Oh, yes, the Hydra King," David nodded. "That accident was what brought him here."

"I know…" Skie growled. "You—you want another to come here? Put that monster back!"

"No."

"I will inform the Chancellor," Skie bellowed. "You're abusing the _Planeshift _network. You could be executed for bringing a creature from the Far Realm into our Multiverse. When _You Know Who _finds out, _she'll _have your soul locked up in the Cage!"

"Which is why, I'm afraid, Khellendros," David began. "I cannot allow you to leave."

"You—never intended to let Melissa and I go…" Skie gasped as the creature rose itself to its full height. The monster towered even well above his head.

"Forgot to tell you that one," David chuckled. "Go, my beauty, you may feast upon his carcass when you're done with him!"

Khellendros leapt out of the way as one of the huge tentacles slung with full force towards him. He dodged another tentacle, rearing his head back and blasting his lightning forth. The bolt skidded across the slimy, gray surface though it did little to harm the horrible monster.

"Damn it to hell," he breathed. "This bloody thing's immune to electricity…"

He flapped his wings, leaping himself off into the air to get away from the creature. Another tentacle lashed out and took hold of his foot. Khellendros bellowed in defiance as he was pulled back down to the ground, his body gathered up in the slick tentacles of the monster. Skie parted his jaws and bit down into the flesh. He heard the creature scream as light blue blood spurted out as he bit harder down into the flesh. He tasted metallic on his purple tongue as the blood trickled down his throat. With one jerk of his head, Skie tore away taking a chunk of flesh with him. He leaned back and spat the flesh out of his mouth. Claws raked across the meaty parts, digging into the trunk of the slimy monster. The creature had no features Skie could recognize as a face, or a head, or eyes, nose, or a mouth. It did have a number of suckers like that on the arms of an octopus. He could hear the disgusting suction sound as they pressed against his body. The creature clinched down upon him, its muscular appendages tightly constricting around his form, pinning his limbs down. Skie let loose another powerful bellow as he felt the air ssqueezed out of him. A tentacle wrapped around his neck, squeezing tightly.

"Squeeze him!" David called. "Pop his head off like a grape!"

Skie shut his eyes tightly, grimacing from the pain of the constriction. He could not move, he could not even form a spell to save his life. There was only one thing that ran through his mind right now…at least Melissa will be safe…


	9. Felloship of Melissa

**The Fellowship of Melissa**

In the most covert fashion possible, SG-1 snuck into the back entrance of David's Mansion. Thankfully, the rear entrance lead directly to the manor's kitchen, which provided plenty of cover for the team to traverse through. Of course, this being a kitchen belonging to a Gnome meant that it wasn't your average variety kitchen. Even though it was populated by gadgets your middle dollar earning couldn't afford, there were some obvious items that were out of place...

Like the cauldron heating over a gas fire...

And the evil witch churning the muck that was cooking inside of it.

"Double, double, toil and bubble, fire burn and cauldron bubble!"

"Uh, excuse me..."

The evil Witch let out a nefarious laugh. And then a high pitched scream when she realized she wasn't alone.

Three rifles and a very intimidating Goa'uld staff weapon pointed at the Witch. Frightened eyes bugged out of her head, nearly reaching the length of her disjointed nose.

"What do you want?!" the witch asked in a panic, "Please don't harm me! I'm just an old lady...a wicked old lady, ahahahahah!"

Jack glanced about at his friends, who returned his weary gaze.

"Listen, I know you're busy being the wicked witch of the west and all," Jack said, "But we really need to find this little girl. Her name's Melissa. Have you seen her?"

The witch let her hands drop in a disappointed fashion.

"Oh, the little scamp? Third floor, last door on the left. You can't miss her," the Witch admitted.

Jack let his weapon drop and passed by. One by one, the SG-1 team excused themselves from the Witch's sight. Until, Major Carter butted the back of her rifle on the backside of the Witch's head, knocking her out cold.

"Carter?!" Jack asked.

Samantha shrugged. "She said she was a wicked lady, sir."

By the look of his expression, Jack wasn't buying her excuse.

"She would have blown our cover, sir," Sam explained in a more professional tone.

Jack conceded to that and went on his way.

The next stop on their jaunt was the entertainment lounge. However, there was a party in full swing, with absolutely no way of getting in unnoticed. The team looked around at the other hallways in the immediate area. None of them seemed to lead towards the stairway. This room did, however, which meant that there was only one way through.

Jack signaled to Teal'c, who knew exactly what to do.

In the next instant, the party going fairy-tale creatures were enshrouded by the choking clouds of smoke grenades. The next thing they knew was that gun fire had erupted from out of nowhere. A fleeing panic ensued of people trying not to get shot, while at the same time stumbling around in the blinded smoke, while SG-1 infiltrated their ranks.

Those unfortunate enough to run into the elite team were quickly taken down either by bullets, or the sheer force of an energy bolt.

SG-1 made it to the stairway. Teal'c and Samantha covered the rear of their retreat while Daniel and Jack took hurried up the stairs to the second floor. An Orc security guard was waiting for them, however, and pounced on Jack before he had time to defend himself. The two scuffled even as they tumbled back down the stairs. Daniel turned to help his friend, but his attention was caught away by the roar of two more approaching Orc guards.

They weren't ordinary Orcs however. Their well muscular stature easily put them at over seven feet tall. Their strangely tailored suits bore broad bullet proof vests on their upper torsos, and to top it off, they each proudly displayed a pair of shotguns, clutched tightly, and readily, in their oversized hands. They were Uruk-ai, and they were armed to the jagged teeth.

"Oh, that's not good," Daniel mumbled to himself.

A second later, their guns erupted with projectiles, all of which put holes in the wall where Daniel was standing next to.

Back on the first floor, Jack and the Orc continued their struggle. Sam and Teal'c cleared out of their way but took up aiming. Jack managed to pull himself up over the Orc and land several choice blows to its face. The Orc only growled at Jack and continued its fight anew.

"Colonel!" Samantha called out.

"Go help Daniel!" Jack ordered.

Samantha and Teal'c reluctantly complied. They headed up the stairs, where the explosive sounds of shotgun fire continued to blast.

The Orc kicked Jack off of him, the force of which pushed Jack onto a table from the aforementioned party. Jack, although feeling a sharp pain, pulled himself up to face the Orc. The Orc had pulled out a knife and was now circling around with an obvious, murderous, intent. Having no knife himself, Jack looked around at what was available to him. He couldn't see much through the smoke, which was clearing, but he did notice something that was lying right next to him.

A splintered leg from the table, with plenty of sharp edges.

Jack armed himself with his wooden stick of death and began circling around the Orc in return. The two combatants made several fake attempts to throw the other off, but neither one was going for the ruse. This would not be a quick fight.

A thought then occurred to Jack. This was the perfect time to quote a line from one of his favorite action movies.

He took the initiative.

"You are one ugly mother..."

The Orc charged.

Back upstairs, Daniel was not having the time of his laugh trying to stay alive. He had barricaded himself inside what was probably a cupboard of some kind. Only, it wasn't the kind of cupboard where you kept food, but magic potions and elixirs. The doors that opened to this spell room were remarkably re-enforced and proved to be a good source of cover. The shotgun rounds that the Uruk-ai used barely broke through at all.

Daniel glanced at his foes, then at potions, then at his foes again. He decided to give his kooky idea a try. First he fired blindly to afford himself some time to open the compartment doors to the potions. One by one, he grabbed several beaker sized bottles until his free hand couldn't hold anymore. Just as the Uruk's were about to charge, Daniel fired off another round. Once he was safely backed behind the door he threw one of potions as if it were a grenade.

The beaker burst forth, releasing its contents. The liquid exploded into a puff of pink layered smoke. The only thing to come out of the smoke cloud was a group of butterflies.

Daniel peaked his head from out of the door and saw the result of his endeavor, to his disappointment.

"Aw, damn it..."

Daniel picked up his gun and squeezed the trigger, only to hear the clicking that signaled he was out of rounds. The Uruk's seized the opportunity and kicked open the doors. With their shotguns cocked and ready, Daniel dropped his rifle and backed a slow retreat. The Uruk's grunted with laughter, taking delight in having cornered their prey.

"Let's just take his head off," the lead Uruk roared, "I want to have the meaty parts roasting before long."

"Oh yeah," the other Uruk said, "Wouldn't want any bullets or lead in our supper!"

Daniel gulped loudly. This was not going to be pretty.

The butterflies returned in that instant and surrounded the Uruk's again. This time, they did not flutter away when they were swatted at. They latched onto the Uruk's and bit down hard, releasing a poisonous toxin. The Uruk's roared in pain and frantically tried to get the butterflies off. They took off, out of the room, with a hurry, howling and groaning all the way, their cries echoing through out the mansion.

Samantha and Teal'c entered the spell room seconds later.

"Daniel Jackson, are you hurt?" Teal'c asked.

"Nope", Daniel replied, "Just a little surprised."

"What happened?" Sam asked.

"Uhh," Daniel stammered, "Let's just stock up on some of these potions. Something tells me they're going to come in handy."

Teal'c nodded and chose a few beakers for his taking, as did Sam.

"Where's Jack?" Daniel asked in a worried tone.

"Probably beating the tar out of...whatever those things are," Sam replied.

And Sam was right. Jack had disarmed the knife wielding Orc just a few moments prior. The Orc, in turn, had managed to make Jack lose his splintered club. Now it came down to an old fashioned fist fight.

The Orc attacked first. Jack was ready. He caught the Orc's punch and used his own momentum to toss him into the bar where the drinks were kept. The Orc smashed face first into intoxicating bottles of liquor and other drinks unknown to mere mortals. He collapsed in a heap of his own defeated mass. Jack sighed, relieved, and went on ahead to pick up his gun.

He quickly turned around to make sure that the Orc was still down. To his surprise, it still was, as he had been expecting some kind of last minute shoot out, just like in some of his favorite action films.

"Loser", Jacked scoffed at the unconscious Orc.

He then hurried up the stairs. Just then, a very tired Orc hand reached over the top of the bar table.

Sam, Teal'c, and Daniel reached the area where the Witch said Melissa would be. All they found was an impossibly gigantic, sprawling, gothic looking arena with plenty of stone pillars. But no Melissa.

"Okay", Samantha said, "Either we've been tricked, or this is an illusion."

"Or maybe we entered some kind of pocket dimension?" Daniel asked.

Sam opened her mouth to say something, and then reconsidered. "Well, anything's possible I guess. There is the theory of universal wave function, but..."

Daniel and Teal'c gazed at Sam, inquisitively. She waved her hand dismissively at them.

"Forget it, let's just find Melissa."

They were about to continue on with their quest when they heard the unholy sound of Orcs howling in the distance. Teal'c and Daniel ran back to the entrance of the room. They were immediately met with gun fire zipping past their heads. Daniel pulled the doors shut. Teal'c quickly handed him large antique lances, spears, and axes to brace the door.

"What's going on?!" Sam asked.

"A wave of creatures are fast approaching!" Teal'c shouted.

"And they have a Cave Troll!"

Before Sam could ask anything further, the door was slammed by the pounding of dozens of angry Orcs. The SG-1 trio backed further and further into the expansive room, looking anywhere they could for cover. The door was continually pounded, so much so that the hinges were starting to come off.

"Teal'c, Daniel," Sam said, "If we die, there's something I want you guys to know."

Sam waited until she had both of their attention before continuing. "This is the most asinine mission I have ever been on!"

Daniel nodded his head to the side, affirming Sam's point of view.

"Indeed", Teal'c answered, with the tiniest hint of a smirk.

The doors came off of their hinges, and Orcs and goblins poured through. They came howling, roaring, and blasting everything in sight. SG-1 retaliated in kind. Whereas the Orcs shots were wild and unfocused, years of training and experience were on SG-1's side. And it showed as dozens of creatures fell before a wave of bullets.

Daniel stopped his barrage for but a moment to toss another potion-filled beaker into the air. This time, a great wall of flame exploded outward, taking a great deal of Orcs with it. Sam and Teal'c stared at the flame, then at Daniel, both with surprise and admiration. They too took out their beakers and tossed them overhead once the flames died down. The result wasn't nearly as explosive, but it helped their chances. Bolts of lightning surged from a miniature storm cloud, once one beaker shattered, while swarms of insect creatures appeared from another.

Either way, things were going bad for the Orcs.

And that's when the Cave Troll stormed in, roaring with a terrible fury. It didn't carry any modern day weapons, nor did it dress up in modern day attire as its Orc associates did. A simple loin-cloth adorned its lower torso, and it carried an impossibly large, spiked club in its hands.

"Oh, my, God..." Sam whispered.

The Cave Troll stomped towards SG-1. Instead of firing their weapons, Teal'c and Samantha took Daniel's lead and started throwing potions at the creature. None of the potions had any visible effect; it seemed that they had already used their trump card. The Cave Troll turned on a dime and dashed straight for Samantha. Samantha took a literal dive as she avoided a powerful swing from the Troll's spiked club. The broken stone pillar where Samantha had taken cover was smashed into dust.

Sam recovered from her dive and quickly shot off several rounds into the Troll's chest. The bullets all found their mark, and small rivets of blood dripped down from the Troll's wounds. But the Troll did not fall over or show any other visible signs that it was hurt. Instead it roared once more and charged towards Sam. Teal'c and Daniel fired at the creature's back. Bullets and energy bolts impacted against the Troll's hardened muscles, but that did not dissuade the creature away from its current target.

Sam was on the run from the Troll, but she was nowhere near fast enough to outrun the creature's incredible strides. It quickly caught up to her and turned its backhand against her hide. The force of blow pushed her through the air for several feet before she landed with a hard tumble.

Daniel and Teal'c dashed towards the Troll, regardless of the harm it could cause them.

"Daniel Jackson," Teal'c called out, "I'll distract the beast! Help Major Carter!"

Daniel grunted a reply. Meanwhile, the Troll slowly approached its downed victim. Samantha was out, mostly stunned from the blow she endured. She was oblivious to the fact that the Troll was about to stomp her prone form into the stone ground for all eternity. Thankfully, that was avoided when Teal'c took to blasting the creature's head. That got the Troll's attention for sure. It turned all of its animalistic fury on the experienced Goa'uld warrior, which allowed for Daniel to get to Samantha.

"Sam? Sam?!" Daniel cried out.

All Sam could do was groan. She was halfway between consciousness and something else. Taking a chance, Daniel took out the last potion in his possession. It was sky blue in color, and Daniel hoped it would do what he thought it would do. He poured a tiny bit of it into Sam's mouth, and waited to see what would happen next. To his delight, not only did she awaken, but she arose with a vigor he had not seen in her previously.

"Sam? You all right?" Daniel asked, slightly relieved.

Samantha turned and faced Daniel with the most devious expression he had ever seen her muster.

"Excuse me, Daniel, I'll be right back."

Sam dusted herself off and marched slowly over to where the troll was battling with Teal'c.

Chasing Teal'c would be the proper term. Teal'c hid behind a grouping of pillars untouched from the battle. After the troll would strike with its club, he took a shot at its head with his staff weapon. One bolt managed to successful sting the troll in its eye. The troll stumbled backwards, roaring a painful cry. It let out another ferocious roar, shaking the entire room to its foundations. Teal'c knew he was in trouble now.

The Troll then felt the tiny sensation of something tapping its shin. It peaked down with its remaining eye and saw Sam standing before it, and looking awfully confident too.

It bellowed a confused grunt. That was soon followed by Sam's fist connecting with its chin. The superhuman blow sent the Troll reeling. It again howled in pain but it wasn't allowed any time to recover. With one kick to its leg, Sam made the troll fall on its backside. She then jumped atop its chest and strolled the length of its upper torso, all the way down to its face. The troll reached an angry hand up to grab Sam, but with yet another unbelievable punch, she broke its hand down the center of its palm.

Daniel joined Teal'c, who was witnessing this...impossible event with his own two eyes. Both men, although having seen amazing things in their lives, still appeared quite shocked at seeing what they saw.

"Daniel Jackson," Teal'c asked, "What was in that potion that you gave to Major Carter?"

Daniel looked at the blue bottle again. It was written in a language he didn't understand.

"Don't know, but obviously one of the side effects is super human strength," Daniel replied.

Samantha knelt down, and grabbed the Troll by its chin. It looked utterly horrified as she cocked her fist back. That horror transformed into a terrified yelp when she rained down her blows on its face.

"THIS!", Sam said, accentuating all of her words with a punch, "IS, FOR, ALL, OF, THE, CRAZY THINGS, I'VE SEEN, ON, THIS, MISSION!"

The Troll was knocked out by the fifth word or so, it didn't even hear Sam finish her sentence.

She stood up and hopped down from the unconscious troll, once again dusting off her hands. She turned to her friends, proudly placing her hands on her hips, and smiling victoriously. All Teal'c and Daniel could do was let their jaws drop.

"Hey, guys!"

Sam, Daniel, and Teal'c turned to face Jack, who had just entered the room. Jack surveyed all the damage that had been done. Wounded Orcs, burnt Orcs, downed cave trolls...he whistled in as he took in the sight.

"Did I miss anything?" Jack blatantly asked.

A shimmering light ignited at the end of the end of the room. Without a moment to lose, SG-1 made a run for it. Nearly instantaneously as they entered the light, they found themselves inside of a more modest bedroom. It was a room with an open closet, a bathroom, a refrigerator, but no windows or exits. And it housed the very person that they were looking for.

Melissa had been sitting up, knees hugged tightly to her chest. Tears stained her face and her clothing. SG-1's sudden arrival didn't snap her out of her sobbing, for she assumed that more monsters had shown up.

"Melissa?" Jack called out.

That got her attention. She gasped at the sight of SG1 and backed up to the bed's headrest.

"Who are you?" Melissa cried out in fear.

"We're friends of your Uncle Skie. We're here to rescue you," Sam answered.

Melissa got down from the bed, slowly, cautiously. "Where's Uncle Skie?"

"He's distracting David so we can escape. Come on, we've got to go now, I know he'll be happy to see you," Daniel explained.

Melissa still was unsure of what was going on, but she figured that these were normal people, which was a lot different than she was accustomed to seeing over the past few days. Perhaps they were telling the truth.

She took a hold of Sam's hand, who then scooped her up into her arms as if she were a newborn baby. And together with Melissa, SG-1 made a break for it.


	10. Even Dragons Need Help

**Even Dragons Need Help**

The thought of seeing her deal uncle and guardian again made Melissa's heart thump with joy. Though that joy soon turned to fear when she heard a pained, draconic roar bellow outside the mansion. All her years living with a dragon, she grew accustomed to the various sounds a dragon would make. That was not a roar of anger, it was a roar of fear.

"Uncle Skie…" she breathed. "He's in trouble…"

"What?" Jack asked.

"Uncle Skie!" Melissa cried, pulling away from Samantha's arms. She dashed off out into the courtyard.

"Melissa, wait!" Sam cried as she and the rest of the team ran after her. Melissa did not get far though. She stopped, standing frozen like a statue before a horrible sight. She saw Khellendros, her uncle, wrapped in slime-covered tentacles of a monster that nightmares were made of. She saw a slight glow affect trickle up and down the tentacles of the monster and from all those years of seeing magic, she knew what it meant. That creature—whatever it was—was sucking the life out of Skie. SG-1 paused as well, their eyes wide at the scene before them.

"That—has got to be the ugliest thing I've ever seen…" Jack blinked.

"What is that thing?" Daniel asked.

"Apparently the 'bate' has been caught," Teal'c rumbled.

"What is it doing?" Sam asked.

"It's draining Uncle Skie," Melissa sniffed, wiping her eyes free from her flowing tears. Sam knelt down to her.

"You—know what its doing?" she asked.

"See the energy flowing into its arms?" Melissa pointed. "It's draining Uncle Skie's life." She turned back to Sam, staring up at her with her pale blue eyes. "You gotta help my uncle. Please?"

"That thing's bigger than Skie…" Daniel breathed. "How can we go up against something like that?"

"It would appear we have no choice, Dr. Jackson," said Teal'c. "We are to see our Stargate again; we must get it from the gnome. To do so, we must defeat that monster."

"No, we get that monster away from Skie and then he defeats it," Jack stated. "Daniel's right, we can't fight a monster like that. But Skie can. Now—its our turn to play the decoy." He turned back to Daniel. "Got anymore of that stuff?"

"Yeah…" Daniel said. "You think it'll make us strong enough?"

"It'll make us strong enough to get that squid-thing's attention," Jack shrugged. Daniel sighed and handed the bottle over to Jack who took a drink. Then, he handed it back to Daniel, who took a drink, and then on to Teal'c.

"I am not so sure this will affect me," began Teal'c. "Given the symbiote inside of me."

"Just try it," Jack said. "If it doesn't affect you, it doesn't."

"Very well…" the Jafa nodded his head and took the last drops from the vile.

"Wow…" Daniel began. "I really feel kinda…peppier."

"Yeah," Jack said. "Okay…let's go."

"Melissa," began Sam. "We're gonna try to save your uncle. Just stay out of sight, okay?"

"Yeah," Melissa nodded, ducking back into the bushes.

"I'm feeling up to some calamari," Jack grinned.

0

"My, aren't we in a bind!" David laughed. "It won't be long now, you'll be nothing more than blue-scaled jerky."

Skie felt all of his strength seep away from his body. The pain itself was going away, replaced by numbness as more and more of his life force was flowing out away from him. He began to think back to the times when his kind did something similar before the Rule of Ascension was made. His kind once fed upon life force like vampires. It was a horrible venture for the victim. Though he was now Ascended, it did not mean his life force could not be drained by anyone. He could die from it just like any mortal. He did not want to die, he wanted to live so he could see Melissa again. Though the hopelessness began to dawn upon him that he may never see her. With those thoughts, Khellendros began to give up, his head slumping over and his eyes slowly closing.

_Don't give up…_he heard his spirit say. _Don't give in. That's not like you. You never give up._

Skie lifted his head up and stared at the starry sky above.

_Please, help me…_he prayed to an unseen force that only he and his kind could acknowledge. _Give me the strength…please…for Melissa…_

David chuckled: "I see there's some fight left in you…"

A gold flash exploded upon the left side of the monster and it reared back in pain and annoyance. David swung around, his eyes wide when he saw four mundane humans dressed in military garments dive out of the shadows, spraying their weapons upon his creature.

"Who are you?!" he cried.

"Back up…" one of the humans replied. Skie's eyes turned to the firing, a weakened smile appeared on his face. He knew them, Jack, Sam, Daniel, and Teal'c. They were coming to save him. Teal'c continued to fire his staff weapon upon the monster as Sam, Daniel, and Jack raced around its flank, spraying their weapons at the side. The creature let out an audible cry and its tentacles trembled. Skie Khellendros began to feel the tentacles loosen around him and he managed to pull a claw free. With some strength left, he thrust his claw forward, ramming it into the main stalk of the monster. The monster flung him to the ground. The tentacles slung around, slamming into the ground below, trying to smash the humans who were causing the irritation. Sam leapt up into the air, surprised by the altitude she managed to gain. She flipped over as a tentacle barely missed her, allowing her new super speed to carry her towards the fallen dragon. David called out to the monster, trying desperately to control its tantrum.

"No, my beauty!" he called. "Focus! Focus!"

A tentacle spasm and flinched towards him. With one whip of the tentacle, David was smashed into a bloody smear on the grass. Jack paused, blinking at the sight of the gnome's death.

"Well, that's the end for him," he said.

"Okay, but what about that?" Daniel asked.

"Carter!" Jack called.

Samantha rushed to Skie's side, kneeling down to the dragon who lay deathly still on the ground.

"Skie…" she called. "Come on, get up."

"Where…how…could you run so fast?" Skie asked, peeking an eyelid open.

"We—took some sort of potion," she replied. "It kinda gave us super human powers."

She handed it over to him and Skie gave it a sniff.

"A—tonic," Skie gasped. "It just boosts your natural abilities. Makes you run faster, become stronger, jump higher—even boosts your—natural armor—your skin. It won't last long."

"And it's the last bit we took," she said. "That's why you need to get up and defeat that thing!"

Skie lifted his head painfully up, his whole body was shaking.

"I—don't have the strength to…" he gasped, trying desperately to get to his feet. "I'm—too weak."

Samantha glanced back as the monster slithered towards Skie again, its tentacles reaching out for him.

"Carter!" Jack cried. "Carter, Skie! Get the hell away from that!"

Teal'c slammed the end of his staff into one of the writhing tentacles. The creature reared in pain again, glancing back at the Jafa. One by one, the many tentacles slammed against the ground as Teal'c dashed between them. Skie glanced up again, rising slowly to his shaking feet. A tentacle lashed out and scooped Samantha Carter up, bring her closer to it.

"Major!" Skie cried.

"Carter!" Jack called.

Skie glanced back up to the sky again: _Help me! Just a little power! I'm not asking for much._

"Skie, stop staring at the sky and help Carter!" Jack called.

Skie growled, rearing back onto his hind legs. He spread his wings wide and used his tail to steady himself. His head leaned back and he built up the charge in his mouth. He knew the monster was immune to his lightning, but he had to make it drop Sam. Skie bellowed and spat his breath weapon out, only nothing would come. The only thing he could muster was a spark. Growling in frustration, Skie shifted his weight and his tail lashed out, slamming into the monster and knocking Sam out of its grasp. Jack ran out with open arms, catching the major as she fell.

"You alright?" he asked.

"Yeah…" she nodded.

"O'Neill!" called Teal'c as another tentacle came down. Jack dashed off. Daniel rushed out in front of Skie, glancing up at the dragon as he swung a wing around. He used the claws at the tip of the digits to slash across the monster's flank. Daniel could see the fatigue in the dragon's body.

"What's wrong?!" Daniel asked.

"The—monster drained me the—last bit of—my energy…" Skie growled in frustration. "I'm so tired."

"Skie!" Jack cried. "Do something!"

Skie growled again and reached deep inside of himself for what last bit of magical energies he had.

…_help…me…_

Skie's eyes opened wide when he felt a surge of power wash over his body. He saw the monster slither swiftly towards him, tentacles out—ready to drain the rest of his life. Skie bellowed out, crying to the sky, his scales becoming the same color of his hair—platinum. His beard disappeared off of his chin and the blue tips of his horns faded away. His horns became branched at the bottom. His features seemed more along the lines of a Metallic Gold Dragon now than a Chromatic Blue Dragon, but his scales were platinum. Even his eyes changed color, becoming intense blue—the same his scales once were. Daniel glanced up, dropping his weapon. Though there were no Blue Dragons that he knew of in Earth Legend, there was however one Platinum Dragon.

"I—don't believe it…" he breathed.

With renewed strength, Skie launched himself into the air. Khellendros knew that the change would not last long. He knew that in order to do this spell, he was about to blow off every last ounce of power he had left. He was not even sure if he was going to live after such an expulsion. The monster bellowed at the changed dragon as a powerful light built up inside the dragon's mouth. Skie unleashed the shot, a frosty-colored, liquid spray spiraled down to the monster before it could react. SG-1 leapt out of the way as the spray hit, freezing the tentacled monster solid.

"What the hell…" Jack breathed. His eyes turned skyward as he saw another built-up charge from Skie. "Yeah…I think we better move."

"Sir…" Sam began. "I think that was liquid oxygen…"

"That's nice, Carter," Jack nodded as he pulled her by the collar as soon as a powerful blue-white beam blasted apart the frozen monster. The monster shattered to dust and then became vaporized by the tremendous heat. Skie's form returned to normal as he landed down onto the ground. Blood dripped out of the corner of his mouth. His throat was on fire. He clutched at his chest, feeling his heart quiver. It felt like it was about to burst. Melissa rose up out of the bushes, dashing towards the dragon.

"Uncle Skie…" she breathed. Skie nodded and smiled at her, but before she could reach him, he collapsed onto the ground. Melissa ran towards him, tears welling up in her eyes, blinding her vision. She threw her arms as far as they could go around his bearded chin, softly sobbing at his side. Jack glanced back, looking at the fallen dragon. Then, his eyes roved over to where the monster once was. There was nothing left but a massive, burnt crater.

"What the hell was that…" he breathed. Daniel blinked, and walked with shaky steps towards the colonel.

"Bahamut…" he finally was able to say. "That—was Bahamut."

"What?" Jack asked, glancing back at Daniel.

"A Sumer god," Daniel replied. "The Platinum Dragon. The Arabs believed he was an angel who rode upon a massive fish or whale and he carried in his hands the gates of both Heaven and Hell. But the Sumerians believed he was a dragon. They believed that Bahamut could breathe a ray of light that could obliterate evil. The Babylonians thought he was some sort of massive sea serpent that protected the oceans. And here I thought he was nothing more than some answer on one of my exams when I was a college."

"In Jafa legend," began Teal'c. "In the incident on Oererth, it was said that a Gold Dragon called upon the power of Bahamut and channeled it through its body to drive away the Goa'uld. The legend states the dragon died afterwards because the power was too much for it to take."

Sam placed her hand over her mouth, feeling her heart become crushed as she watched Melissa weep softly.

"So Skie…" Daniel began.

Jack's eyes blinked when he saw a frilled ear twitch. He glanced over and saw the massive chest of the dragon rise up and down.

"I don't think he's dead yet," he said as he slowly approached Melissa.

"Melissa…" Melissa heard the pained voice of her uncle. "He won't—let me go—just yet…"

Melissa gasped and then began to laugh, hugging her uncle's chin tightly. She turned back at Jack and smiled brightly.

"I take it—he's a tough old dragon…" Jack began softly.

"Yup…" Melissa nodded. Jack turned his head back to the sky when he saw a chopper come into view. He knew that General Hammond was on that chopper. Then, his eyes fell upon the two Stargates. He knew things were not quite over just yet. Skie still had to own up to his crimes despite why he did them. This was not going to be easy for either of them. He glanced back down at Melissa, who's happy face became worried again.

"Is Uncle Skie in trouble?" she asked.

"Yeah," Jack replied. "He is. He—stole something of ours, but he did it in order to save you."

"Is he gonna go to jail?" Melissa asked.

"I don't know," Jack replied.


	11. An Interesting Compromise

**An Interesting Compromise**

"See that?" Jack asked, pointing up at the massive hole in the ceiling of the gate room. Skie glanced up at the hole as Jack turned back to him. "See that? You did that."

"How many times do I have to say I'm sorry?" Skie asked in frustration, placing his hands on his hips. The dragon was in his human form, dressed in a blue and white Hawaiian shirt, khaki pants and sandals. Clipped to his shirt pocket was a badge that allowed him into the mountain. Already, construction was underway to repair the damage. The Stargate was once more placed back into its riggings and it ran just as fine as it did prior to the theft. Skie's Antarctic Gate was sent to Area 51 for storage and a permanent iris welded to the interior of the ring. The Present and Hammond did not want to risk any other strange creatures such as the one SG-1 and Skie battled the other night to come through the gate.

Above the gate room, in the debriefing room, General Hammond was talking to High Chancellor Electrius, who also was in human form. The Blue Dragon dignitary was dressed in blue and silver, Persian-like robes with a silvery diadem around his forehead. Beside him was Neli'thea, a female Ancient Silver Dragon. She was dressed in more formal Grecian attire, wearing white and silver robes and silvery armbands and cuffs. Her silver hair was curled and placed into a topknot at the back of her head with curly tuffs falling about her shoulders. She held a beauty that any man would either die or kill for. All Silver Dragons chose handsome and beautiful human or elven forms. Neli'thea chose an elven form. At the other side of Electrius was Vulcanus, a Great Wyrm Red Dragon, who chose a buff, clean-shaven human form. He was dressed in Byzantine Roman attire, looking like a Centurion complete with gold-colored breast plate, red tunic and leather sandals. Sitting on the table of the briefing room was Vulcanus' Centurion helm with crimson-dyed brush. His fiery-colored eyes blazed under the thick bangs of his black hair. Daniel, Samantha, and Teal'c sat down at the briefing table with General Hammond. Daniel could not help but to noticed how the dragons were dressed, choosing the clothing of Earth's past. Then, his eyes turned to a fourth dragon who stood up, leaning against the wall. This dragon was a Great Wyrm Gold Dragon named O'eterus—or Galen as humans began to know him. So far, he was the nicest of council members Daniel had met. Skie had informed Daniel earlier that Galen was the previous High Chancellor. He was dressed in more recent attire, an off-white collared shirt and a pair of brown slacks with a gold tie and a brown blazer.

"I believe it is time the—accused be brought in here," began Electrius. "My son should hear this."

"Right," nodded Hammond. "Daniel, do you mind?"

"Okay," Daniel said as he rose up from his seat.

"Electrius…" began Galen. "Go easy on Khellendros, will you? After all—it was for Melissa."

"O'eterus," sighed Electrius. "I appreciate your council, but please don't tell me how to discipline my son."

"Khellendros is a Great Wyrm like you now," Galen shrugged. "He's master of himself."

Daniel came down to the Gate Room where Skie and Jack were watching the construction.

"Hey, guys?" he began. "They want to see you."

"Well, I'm off…" Skie sighed. "Here we go. I know I'm in for it."

"Remember my promise?" Jack asked. "I'll put in a good word for yah."

"Much appreciated," Skie said. "But I doubt your voice will carry well over the High Chancellor."

"I can try," said Jack as he grabbed hold of Daniel's collar. "Let's go, Daniel."

All three entered the room together. Galen stood out of the way as they came in. Skie sat beside SG-1, folding his fingers up on the table. He noticed the fierce glare he received from Vulcanus. He felt a little uncomfortable by the glance, knowing it was not a good thing to anger a Red Dragon.

"Khellendros, Storm of the Northern Desert," began Electrius. "What you have done is by far the most idiotic act any dragon could have done. Wyrmlings know better than to do what you have done. You've stolen property belonging to their government, preformed magic in the open—which you know is strictly forbidden unless its necessary."

"It was necessary," Skie growled.

"Was it necessary to do that?" Vulcanus asked, pointing his thumb at the damage in the Gate Room. "These mortals are blissfully unaware of our presence and we've fought hard to keep it that way. But your actions nearly put our kind on the 11 o'clock news! We're lucky Sector X has managed to cover the important parts up and made it out to look like some hotheaded vandal. But how are they going to explain a blown up mountain?"

"Vulcanus…" Electrius sighed. "That's enough."

The Red Dragon let out a snort and crossed his arms.

"We understand why you did what you did, Khellendros," began Neli'thea. "And the circumstances you were in. But what you must understand that what you have done nearly placed the magical world in true danger—and not only that your home planet in grave danger. We are lucky the President was willing to listen to us."

Daniel leaned over to Samantha and whispered: "You notice something about their names? All the male dragon's have names that end with 's'."

Khellendros cleared his throat, his ears picking up Daniel's statement.

"Oh, sorry," said Daniel.

"I take no pride in what I have done," Skie continued. "Nor am I going to give any excuses. I await the Council's decision."

Electrius opened his mouth, about to say something when Jack raised his hand. The Chancellor turned to him.

"Uh, can I say something?" Jack asked.

"Colonel…" Hammond sighed.

"Please?" Jack asked.

"You may, mortal…" Electrius began.

Jack rose up from his seat: "Look, I don't claim to say what Skie—er Khellendros did was right, but ask yourself if you were in his situation—would you do the same thing?"

Electrius did consider that, rising up from his chair.

"Don't think that I haven't considered what I would have done if it were Khellendros captured," he began. "But even I would accept the punishment of my actions."

"I'm just saying…" Jack began. "Maybe going easy on him because of it."

"Even he agrees, Bob," Galen chuckled, calling Electrius by his nickname.

"Bob?" Jack asked. He glanced back at Skie who shrugged.

"Ahem!" Electrius grunted. "Your loyalty to Khellendros is admired and your statement is noted, Colonel O'Neill. However, that will not change my decision. I have spoken to your President and we both agree on this. Khellendros will give a part of his hoard up to the reconstruction of your facility. The second agreement was that because Khellendros is knowledgeable in the Stargate and some of the worlds it is connected to…" He turned to Skie. "He will join the Stargate Command as an active member."

"What?" Skie called. "You're mad, father! I—become a civil servant?"

"It's either that, or you be banished to Carceri for 500 years," said Vulcanus. "Take your pick, Khellendros."

Skie groaned: "Civil service it is…"

Skie glanced back at the other SG-1 team. Daniel was clearing his throat, Teal'c's lip curled slightly into a smile and Samantha was grinning.

"As of today, you are a member of SG-1," said Hammond. "Since they are the ones who are more familiar with you. You will assist Daniel in cultural interpretation and language translation. Also, if need be, you will assist in heavy loads as well, carting supplies and transporting SG-1 in and out of battle situations."

"Great," said Jack. "We could use a good pack mule."

"Father!" Khellendros called. Electrius shrugged. Skie slammed his head on the table. "Thanks…Dad."

"I believe this meeting has adjourned," Galen chuckled. He watched as the three Councilors rose up from their seats. The Red and Silver Dragons vanished, leaving Electrius.

"Take care of yourself, son," Electrius said. _"Si mi malrak shivot, Khellendros."_

"_Si geou shivi ihk wux, boja, opsola,"_ Khellendros replied back.

With that, Electrius vanished.

"Uh, Skie…" began Daniel. "What was that language?"

"The language of dragons," replied Galen. "Draconic it's called. The legends say that all languages that have ever existed derived from Draconic. We taught you mortals how to speak instead of grunting and groaning. Did you think it was the other way around?"

"Could you—teach me some, Skie?" Daniel asked.

"I suppose I'll have all the time in the world to do that," Skie replied. "What about Melissa?"

"She will come to live with you here in Colorado," said Hammond. "We'll make arrangements to move your possessions from your apartment and we will provide you with housing here."

"My hoard…" Skie began. "I have to find a cave for it."

"We'll be happy to help in that survey," said Hammond.

"This place is perfect for you, Skie," said Galen. "It's in badland country. And it has a desert."

"Yes!" Daniel called. "The Great Sand Dunes."

"Blue Dragons have a fondness for deserts," said Galen.

"I suppose I don't have a choice…" sighed Skie. "Alright."

"Swell…" chuckled Galen. "Well, I better be going_. Nomag arisuaco qe breth."_

"_Clax doege di doutan, O'eterus," _said Skie.

"Bye!" Galen waved as he vanished from the debriefing room.

"It sounds almost like Hebrew with a bit of Japanese, and some Swedish…" Daniel began, thumbing through his thoughts about the Draconic. "Berber, maybe and some Cyrillic…"

"Welcome to the team, Skie," Jack said, holding out his hand. Skie took it.

"Thanks," the Blue Dragon nodded. He turned around to Samantha who also shook his hand. Teal'c bowed his head and Skie returned the gesture. Then, Skie turned to Daniel and tapped on his shoulder.

"Uh…" began Daniel. "How do you say 'welcome to the team' in Draconic?"

Skie chuckled: _"Aldoer ekess arhivis."_

"Uh—yeah…that…" Daniel nodded, taking Skie's hand and shaking it.

"_Vinxa," _he said. "It means 'thank you'."

"I have one question," began Daniel. "That creature. What was it?"

"The tentacled one?" Skie asked. "A monster from the Far Realm. The gate builders must have found a way to poke a stable and controllable wormhole through the Multiverse and link it to the Far Realm. David knew about it. He was a worshiper of the nightmarish entities of that fiendish realm and attempted to bring one here. That's why he wanted the Stargate. It's hard for magical creatures to open a portal between our two universes—with good reason. The Powers that Be don't want those creatures running around in the Nine Dimensions."

"Nine Dimensions?" Samantha asked.

"The Multiverse has nine alternate dimensions in the Prime Material Plane, two transitive planes, 16 Outer Planes, and 6 Inner Planes," Skie replied. "Plus all the many demi-planes that wizards have created."

They all stared at him with wide-opened eyes and Skie chuckled at their ignorance.

"But I'll go into more of that later," he continued.

"You're all dismissed," said Hammond.

0

The following week once they repaired the damage to the Gate Room and the mountain itself, and Skie and Melissa had fully moved to Colorado—leaving their Georgian life behind, SG-1 was sent on another mission. They returned to the planet SG-1 had last visited prior to the theft, walking through a field of high, dry grass amid of tall conifer trees. Jack glanced behind him noticing a Skie-in-human form and dressed in the army-green SG-1 uniform bringing up the rear. He was fidgeting with his harness much in the way Daniel used to when he first put on the uniform.

"Come on, Skie, you're falling behind!" Jack called.

"Sorry, I'm just not used to wearing—so much clothes," the Blue Dragon grunted.

"I can't believe they won't settle their differences," sighed Daniel.

"I just hope they don't initiate another potato sack race again," Samantha groaned, not really wanting to remember what happened last time.

"Yeah, well, if they do, we'll let the rookie handle it this time," said Jack.

"Indeed," agreed Teal'c, looking directly at Skie.

"What?" Skie asked.

"That's right," Daniel chuckled. "Skie, how do you feel about potato sack races in the nude?"

Skie paused, staring back at the others.

"What?" he asked again. "Oh—hell no."

"Come on," Jack grinned back. "Besides, you go around in the buff all the time in your dragon form."

"That's different!" Skie called. "All me bits and pieces are tucked away in dragon form. In my human form they're all—hanging out…blech."

"I love how he said that…" Samantha laughed in embarrassment.

"Don't worry, Skie," Daniel began. "I'm sure they won't mind."

"You're serious, aren't you?" Skie asked.

"Yup," Jack nodded. "And it's all a part of the agreement."

"I hate all of you…" Skie growled.

**The End**


	12. Author's Notes

**Author's Notes**

This story was written by two people and not one. So, a lot of the credit does not go to me. If anyone is a bit angry about some of the views of the writer, well, it's just a story.

Remember this is an Alternate Universe. The universe this story is set in is called the Great Multiverse and is the same Multiverse that Kiryuu Knight, Telek, and even Jonathan Long are in. Notice that Galen Garath, aka the Gold Dragon O'eterus is in this story. He is the friend of Pyrothraxus Jonathan Long in the Crimson Dragon. Though this Galen is an alternate version. The Multiverse itself is divided into Nine Dimensions. This story was written in the Alpha Dimension, where as Jonathan is written in the Ceta Dimension and Kiryuu and Telek reside in the Beta Dimension.

All my male dragon names end in 's'. Female Chromatic Dragons end with 'x' or 't' and female Metallic dragons end with either 'a' or 'n'.

This story was more of an idea on throwing SG-1 into Dungeon and Dragons with a pinch of Shadowrun and a dash of Cthulhu.

Hope you all enjoyed it. Though it leaves things open for a full series, I don't know if I'll make one.


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